Beauty of the storm

It's funny... you can go without something for so long you don't realize how you ache for it... until you suddenly have it again. The way we go too long without water, not realizing we're thirsty, until we taste it and begin to gulp breathlessly until it's gone.

I'm sitting at my kitchen window. Listening to the thunder; the rain is literally splashing through the screen onto my face. (Maybe not great for my computer, but I don't care). I didn't realize how much I had missed this. How much peace one can find in a thunder storm. I remember as a child, standing at the back screen door as a storm would roll in. There's no scent quite like that of impending rain. It's clean and fresh; you just want to drink it in. 

We haven't experienced thunderstorms in a number of years where we were living. Rain,yes, but without the storm. The power is so awesome: the lightning snapping, the thunder booming in reply... It's beautiful and frightful all at once. Awesome... like so many acts of God.

The dry, cracked earth in our yet-unfinished backyard reminds me of my soul sometimes. Just this week a friend and I were talking about being in a place where you know you need more of God, but you lack the motivation to pursue Him. "You will seek Me and find me when you seek Me with all your heart" says Jeremiah 29:13.  We talked about how God often brings us to the place of longing - will even leave us there, until we realize our need for Him and chase after Him. Countless times in the Old Testament, He brought His people to the end of themselves, and when they finally cried out to Him, He met their need, and drew them close to Himself again. Watching the rain quench the ground paints that picture for me: the relief of a parched spirit in the power, grace, even gentleness of such a great God.

I wish, instead of a picture, I could upload the smell of the rain :) and you could share it with us.

The lightning flashes and God speaks, "I am the Lord. That is my Name. I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols" (Isaiah 42:8).