Just the other morning during a heavy downpour of rain, I looked out my upper window to see that much of the rainwater was beginning to collect in the low places of my yard instead of flowing harmlessly away from the house. Since flooding had been an issue in the past, I found myself getting more and more anxious at the sight of the ever-increasing pools of standing water covering the tips of my lawn.
Then I spied something fluttering in the watery mess below. A tiny dark-eyed junco was taking a bath in one of the puddles, vigorously beating his wings to kick up a vibrant spray of droplets all around him. With each eager dip and splash, the little bird ruffled his bluish-gray feathers to allow the swirling drizzle to wash away the grime of the world and refresh both his plumage and demeanor.
It was a gladsome scene to behold, and quite humbling. In that moment, the exhilaration that radiated from that little creature in his makeshift bath was palpable, and I found myself ashamed by my earlier hand-wringing.
All too often, I admit, I have narrowed my vision to selfish interests and have failed to see the bigger picture of God’s world and His righteous purpose in all He does for His creation. Indeed, in my state of fear and worry, God turned my attention to a tiny bird splashing in a puddle to remind me that the times and seasons of rain are all under God’s sovereign power and not my own.
Instead of cursing the rain because of its inconvenience to me, I should have been heeding Job’s sage advice to “ask the birds of the heavens” to explain that God as our Maker can bring the rain as He sees fit (Job 12:7-10). Certainly, even in his sweet little bird brain, that tiny junco had a keener perception of the puddle’s purpose because he was created to apprehend God’s earthly blessings in their simplicity.
The grand truth is, the falling of rain is a constant theme throughout Scripture that speaks to the great care that God gives to all His creation. It tells us that rain is a temporal blessing for our creature comforts, and an emblem and display of our Creator’s love and righteousness; and yes, can even come as a cleansing flood to wash away the sins of this corrupt world.
Most plainly, it speaks to God’s general benevolence and care. In His patient loving-kindness, He sends rain on both “the just and the unjust” (Matthew 5:45), which assuredly shows that “the LORD is good to all: and His tender mercies are over all His works” (Psalm 145:9). Indeed the Bible is filled with such beautiful references to God sending the rain as “showers of blessing” to all humanity (Ezekiel 34:26).
Thankfully, those who are most in desperate need of God’s blessings are often the first to apprehend by the Spirit the deeper understanding that rain, sunshine and fruitful seasons are not only gifts of God, but proofs of His loving purpose to “lead you to repentance” (Romans 2:4). The Bible, in fact, specifically teaches on this great spiritual truth. By inspiration, Isaiah openly prophesied of how God uses His sovereign rain among the people as a clarion call to grow in righteousness.
“Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit; let the earth cause them both to sprout; I the LORD have created it” (Isaiah 45:8).
This Biblical imagery surely speaks to the parched and thirsty soul. Since the rains themselves bring life and cleansing to the dry land, so too does God’s righteousness rain down on the sinner as an appeal from Him to “sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord, that He may come and rain righteousness upon you” (Hosea 10:12).
King David the psalmist, in fact, sings of God releasing cloudbursts into a rising river that softens the hard lumpy soil. Likewise, His Spirit can also rain down to flood the scarred furrows of one’s heart and then soften its stony hardness. Thus David pens the glorious thought:
“You visit the earth and water it; You greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; You provide their grain, for so you have prepared it. You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth” (Psalm 65:9-10).
With spiritual eyes, one can see in this lyrical passage the pattern of God’s greater blessing of salvation echoing forth from the terrestrial example. As Matthew Henry wrote in his commentary:
“Temporal mercies to us unworthy creatures shadow forth more important blessings… The pouring forth of the influences of the Holy Spirit, that river of God, full of the waters of life and salvation, render the hard, barren, worthless hearts of sinners fruitful in every good work, and change the face of nations more than the sun and rain change the face of nature.”
To be sure, the many inspired passages in Scripture that teach on the blessing of rain is not accidental. These verses are a provocative illustration for the soul, not only of God’s loving care towards all His creatures, but of His amazing grace in raining down salvation upon this thorny, sin-encrusted world with the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
As theologian John Gill explains, many Biblical references to rain are uniquely fitted to apply to the Gospel:
“(These verses) may design the Gospel; which, like a shower of rain, comes from God; descends from heaven. It is a gift of God which falls according to divine direction; refreshes, revives, and makes fruitful; brings a plenty of divine blessings with it; and comes in season, at its proper time; and is a word in season to weary souls. The Gospel brings with it showers of spiritual blessings, blessings of grace; such as peace, pardon, righteousness, and eternal life: these, like showers, come from God.”
This, then, is where the Christian as evangelist steps into the rain-soaked landscape. As God rains down the Gospel in every dry, barren land of the world, we as believers participate in announcing Christ’s redemptive work to all mankind so that the message might puddle up, like the pool of Siloam (John 9:7), to bring sight to the blind, quench the thirst of the parched, and wash away the grimy sins of the unrighteous through faith in Jesus Christ by the grace of the flowing Spirit.
These verses, of course, were just some of the teachings from God’s word that came to my mind in general bits and pieces as I looked out my window on that rainy day. And as I continued to watch that little junco take his bath, I thought back to my days as a child when I, too, found great joy in running outside through the raindrops and splashing in the puddles, much to my mother’s consternation. Even in my youth, I think I understood in some way that the showers were a witness of God’s goodness and that He gave us these rains from heaven to satisfy our hearts with gladness (Acts 14:17).
How much more should I now understand this as a man of many years who has been showered by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ! Have I not splashed in the puddles of God’s goodness and refreshed my soul? Behold, I was unclean, and yet God saved me through Christ, not because of good works I may have done, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, which cleansed me from all unrighteousness. (Romans 3:23; Titus 3:5; 1 John 1:9).
Yes, the rain may bring storms and floods that requires our fortitude and patience, but with God’s help, believers like myself can surely endure it for His sovereign purpose. Instead of worrying about such things outside our control, it is better for His people to put hand to plow, sow the seeds of the Gospel upon the rich furrowed soil, and wait for the rain from heaven to bring the new life and growth.
With great hope and spiritual harmony, therefore, I join with the psalmist in singing of Christ who, according to Joseph Benson, “sends down the sweet and powerful influences of His Spirit… and with His heavenly dew, makes His Church ever to flourish.”
“May He be like rain that falls on freshly-cut grass, like showers that water the earth!” (Psalm 72:6).
What a blessed thought. And to think that all of this great and comforting truth was contemplated because of a tiny junco splashing in a puddle. Apparently the coy phrase, “A little bird told me…” is not such a cliché after all, especially when it points to the revelation of God’s amazing grace found in Jesus Christ.
“But ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you; or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In His hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind.” — Job 12:7-10
