We all need the rain

Personal Photo: Taken by Shannon Deppen in August of 2018

The past few weeks, it has been so blistering hot in Ohio, and when my family and I went to look at the garden, it was a little bit disheartening. Everything that was growing so beautifully had begun to wilt, in need of some rain. There is no rain in the forecast, which made it all seem a little more desperate for water. We had rain in the past few months, right when it was all planted, encouraging it all to sprout and grow like wildfire. Everything had begun to bloom; the tomatoes and cucumbers and peppers were all setting on and we were eating our own strawberries early in the season. Then the rain just stopped. It didn't come. How unpredictable the weather can be?

What do you think of when you think of rain? Is it the quenching thirst of a drought or is it the hard times without light? Does rain bring you comfort because it cleans everything, brings nutrients to the Earth, and has a soothing sound or does it make you less happy, force you inside, and cause you to feel lonely? While the rain usually represents sadness, I want to specifically consider in this article how we can view the rain as relief and how we need the rain to provide for us the tools to handle droughts. Water is a basic component of life, and without it, we cannot survive. Scientists who are actively searching for life on other plants evaluate if there is even a chance for life elsewhere by determining if there is water present. We study the ability of water here on earth and are constantly amazed at its ability to be both lifegiving and destructive. About 70% of the cell's internal environment is water-based, it helps organisms maintain a healthy body temperature, and it serves as a habitat for more than half of life on Earth. Truly, water is a crucial aspect of life and with its many symbolisms, it can be a vague topic to tackle. I want to focus on rain and how rain is not only scientifically necessary to sustain life, but also metaphorically necessary to provide relief to us as believers.

The concept of our garden and the plants in such need for nutrients got me thinking about how we, as humans, often feel the same way. We can be cruising along in life, growing and making progress towards our goals, when all of a sudden, the rain stops, and we find ourselves thirsty for relief from the drought. The progress in work we have been making halts, we hit writer's block, we fall ill, we lose a loved one, we are close to hitting our breaking point, spinning out of control, and we don't know how to get back on track. We hit some bumps and find ourselves needing more nutrients than we currently have, with no rain the forecast. Things keep coming, stress keeps mounting, and we are struggling. We cannot see the end of our drought. We find ourselves wilting and we can't seem to find a way to gather the strength and motivation to keep going, to see it through until we get some water to refresh us. Have you been there? How do we handle these fluctuations in life? We know that nothing is promised, that we cannot know what the future holds, and that there will be ups and downs in our journeys. However, when we are actually in the drought, it can seem as though there is no escape, there will never be any rain, there will never be any relief from the pain, confusion, sadness, misunderstanding, burnout etc. that we are experiencing at the time. It can be really hard to know what to do.

The first step in this whole process really comes when we begin to recognize the lack of water. Things keep coming and the heat keeps building and all of a sudden we are wilting and suffering. When we realize that we need water, that we need a break from the sunshine, I think we usually try to find it on our own. My mom and I can water the garden with our hose, which is connected to the well. We can water them three times a day with this water and it will work for a little bit. It will help the plants. While this can make a difference, the water from our well does not give the same amount of relief and nutrients as when the rain caresses the growing plants. They recover better, they grow more, they are healthier when fed with rain water. Not only that, but the water we drink is treated, has chlorine and other chemicals in it to make it safe to ingest, and has more fluoride in it to help our teeth. In these ways, we can really see how rain water is better for plants, as it is purer and lacks the chemicals that are in our tap water. It is important for us to water the plants with whatever we can, but it is also important to recognize that it is not going to be the ultimate source for growth.

We do the same thing, right? When we are struggling, regardless of the reason (It could be because we lost a loved one, we feel like we are failing in our jobs, we are falling behind on the things we need to do, we are confused about our direction in life, and so much more), we might go to numerous different sources to try to help us. Generally, we try to choose the right sources, as we know what helps us when we are feeling down and try to avoid things that would only hurt us. Positive and healthy solutions are the ones we tend to look to. We could try working out more, getting outside more, taking more time for yourself or with your loved ones, etc. We try to hit the reset button on our own. We try to do the things that helped us last time or the things we have been failing to make time for. Turning to healthy and healing methods to help us through our drought is important and often they can lead us back to rain while also providing us temporary relief. However, while these actions can often help us get to the next day, we know that it is just a band-aid on the wound, just a temporary fix for how we are feeling and the ways we are struggling. If we use these things as a replacement for rain, instead of a supplement to the rain, we will deprive ourselves the opportunity to grow more, learn more, and be better children of God. Jeremiah 14:22 explains "Do the skies themselves send down showers? No, it is you, Lord our God. Therefore, our hope is in You, for You are the one who does all this." Just like the well water, we are using other sources to limp along until the rain comes. No one can substitute the rain, and it is up to us to appreciate where the place is in our lives for these helpful watering techniques.

We know true relief will come. We know that God never gives us more than we can handle and that He is with us. He therefore gives us the tools to keep going, even if it is not the lifegiving rain that we need. In this way, the sources of nutrients and water that we try to provide ourselves with are not useless or detrimental (as long as they are given to us by God and not by the world), but they can be used as a supplement to the rain. Hosea 10:12 says, "Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until He comes and showers His righteousness on you." We can prepare ourselves for the rain, appreciate the rain, and look for it when we use the best sources of nutrients that we can find here on Earth. The problem comes in when we no longer seek the rain, when we find ourselves turning to our own abilities to water ourselves and relying on that ability. The replacements we have for rain are not rain. We need the rain.

For believers, the rain is God and His love. Moses states in Deuteronomy 32:2 states, "Let my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distill as the dew, as raindrops on the tender herb and as showers on the grass, like abundant rain on tender plants" We might try to water ourselves with other solutions, and while they do help us, they do not provide the life-giving nutrients we need to grow, blossom, and flourish in life. The rain is where God is; the Bible is the rain, God's voice is the rain, the Holy Spirit is the rain, the grace that Jesus gives us through His blood is the rain. The rain is in the blessings God provides for us, the little details that brighten our day, the taking of Holy Communion. Isaiah 45:8 says that "Rain down, you heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness; Let the earth open, let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together. I, the Lord, have created it." God cares for His children and He brings the rain as a way to relieve us from spiritual droughts, along with physical, emotional, and mental droughts.

When we experience a drought in life, when it can be hard to find the rain, difficult to see past the blistering heat we are feeling, but we trust that the rain will come. We can search for the rain actively to supply nutrients that this world takes away from us. When we know the purest form of relief is the rain, we can seek it out, we can let His love wash over us and bring us back to life through Him. God's blessings and love and grace quench any and all droughts, bringing to us the lifegiving water that we so desperately need to survive and to do His work here on Earth. The rain will quench our thirst and provide to us the relief we so desperately need. We can find temporary relief with sources of nutrients that God has put in our lives, but when our source of water is God's rain, we grow more as children of God, we are better equipped to handle the hardships that are yet to come, and we are stronger in our faith.