Sunshine & Rain
A friend of mine told me about a precious moment from her personal time with God. She was praying and soon found herself lost in her words. Her heart cried out with gratitude to God, “thank you for this suffering, because it has brought me close to your heart.” When the words came out of her mouth, she paused. It caught her off guard for a moment. Was her grief beginning to shift? Was her perspective changing? How could she hold gratitude for the long suffering of her husband’s battle with cancer, his death, and a grief journey for herself and their five small children? But Henri Nouwen says that “true gratitude embraces all of life: the good and the bad, the joyful and the painful, the holy and the not-so-holy.”
Does my friend’s story teach us what it’s like to give thanks with all of our heart? To tell of all God’s wonderful deeds? How do we cultivate a heart like that? A heart that overflows with gratitude for all that God gives us: the sunshine and the rain.
"I will give thanks to you, LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.” Psalm 9:1
It has become a tradition to hear one of my favorite singer/songwriters, Jason Upton, in concert each new year. This year, he spent time reflecting on the agrarian culture we used to be submersed in. Farmers learned to trust God with the sunshine and rain, accepting whatever came as a blessing. When winter lasted far too long or it seemed the rain was just too much; there was an opportunity to humbly trust that God would work it all together to produce crops. Farmers learned that sunshine and rain worked in tandem and both were necessary for healthy growth. Jason Upton then sang these lyrics over us:
There was a time not long ago
When the sun did shine
And the sowers sowed
And the rain did rain
And the crops did grow
It was a time before machinery
A time before certainty
A time before we bought the lie
It was a time before the farmer died
When we had trusting hearts and human soul
It was a time not very long ago
Not very long ago
When we trusted You
Lord, we want to trust You again
It is part of our Christian journey to humbly accept God’s plans for our lives. To surrender to His way of doing things, especially when it seems crooked from our vantage point. Like the farmer, we are invited to cultivate trusting hearts. Whether it is trusting God with a prolonged winter season or even a torrential downpour, we learn the way of gratitude. Like Paul, we learn contentment in every season (Philippians 4:11-12). Gratitude becomes less about the quality or quantity of things God gives to us. Gratitude becomes exceedingly more about experiencing the unchanging attributes of the God who gives gifts to us in the first place.
“Gratitude exclaims, very properly, ‘How good of God to give me this.’ Adoration says, ‘What must be the quality of that Being whose far-off and momentary coruscations are like this!’ One’s mind runs back up the sunbeam to the sun.” CS Lewis
What must be the qualities of God when He paints the sky with a unique design at the close of each day? When He guides us in the darkest of nights. When He gives purpose in our pain. When He places people in our life to hold sorrow with us. When our kids experience a full Christmas and we didn’t plan that. When He sustains our breath through tragedies we thought we’d never survive. When He flies an eagle overhead at just the right moment. Maybe we begin to experience what has always been true of God. That He shares in our suffering. He tenderly fathers our fatherless children. He draws near to the brokenhearted. He works all things together for the good of those who love Him. God sees us and He is deeply relational.
God desires to be with us, to dwell with us. He will never tire of sharing Himself and His creation with us. Ignatius thought highly of practicing gratitude and wrote these words in a meditation on the Love of God: “all blessings and gifts are descending from above…as the rays of light descend from the sun, and as the waters flow from their fountain.” I love the imagery of waters flowing from their fountain: pouring out lavishly, with power, with abundance. God’s gifts to us abound at all times. He is infinitely loving and infinitely generous in all seasons. May we have eyes to see His gifts, a heart that gives thanks for all He has done for us, and may we grow in relationship with The Giver; receiving His gifts with open hands and holding His gifts with an open hand. Adoration tells us that The Giver is good and that will never change.
With humble hearts, we trust you God. Thank you for the sunshine and thank you for the rain.
In Jesus’ Name,
