caroline holzberger

Rain, Rain, Don’t Go Away!

It poured today.

Like, someone-go-find-a-guy-named-Noah-and-follow-him-wherever-he’s-headed kind of rain.

The clouds loomed for hours, but didn’t release one drop until their appointed time. Which, of course, was carpool.

2:57 – drip, drip, drip

2:58 – make a decision.

Will I welcome the rain, or complain about the rain.

All of a sudden, I was flooded with memory after memory of lying on my couch.

Day after day. Week after week. Month after month. Year after year, after year, after year, after year.

I can’t tell you how many times, lying on my couch, I was able to hear the drops of rain on our skylight.

The kids would want to go and play in the rain, but once again, Mama had to say No!

Not because I didn’t want to get wet. I’d have given anything to get wet.

I couldn’t sit upright. If I could sit upright, I couldn’t move around. If I could move around, it sure wasn’t for very long.

Mama had to say No! many more times that she said Yes. Oh, how my heart said Yes, but my body said No for the better part of the last five years.

But. Not. Today.

Today, as God’s buckets in the sky poured out all over the luxury SUVs all around me, I gave thanks.

I thanked Him that my family has cover to safely keep dry from the rain.

I thanked Him I had healthy children who could dance in the rain.

I thanked Him for the warm meal we would eat once we dried off.

I thanked Him for the freedom to be silly, or spontaneous or ridiculous with my children.

I thanked Him for the pouring rain He has used to cleanse my heart of so much self-centeredness lately.

But, most of all, I thanked Him that my heart and my body were both screaming YES! when my sweet babies got into my Gracevan squealing – “Can we play in the rain when we get home!?!”

“You better believe we can!” was Mama’s reply this time.

This time, my body can handle it. This time I am healthy. This time I get to say Yes!!

I snatched up my honorary nephews across the street (sons of Super Neighbor) and took them three, along with my three (in case you’re counting, and I was, that’s six kids under eight) to play in the rain! You took six little kids by yourself out in the street to play in the rain? Are you nuts? You should know that answer by now. Here’s the deal…Super neighbor called me every single day for the entire five years of my illness. Did you read that? Every. Single. Day. I didn’t even want to talk to me every single day. But, man oh man did she don her galoshes and rain gear as she weathered this medical storm with me, right by my side. And, then, as God would have it, right across the street, as of a couple years ago. We are so blessed.

We must have played out there for almost an hour. We made tin foil boats to race down the cul-de-sac. We splashed in puddles like a marching band on parade. We turned our faces upward to rinse off our muddy faces. We laughed. We played. And, I’m pretty sure my kids made a memory today of Mama getting to say Yes!

And Lord, I give you thanks!

My sweet friend, life is hard. It is tiring, messy, draining, stressful, exhausting, overwhelming, expensive, and jam-packed.

But, other times, it is precious. Other times it is joyful, silly, spontaneous, friendly, simple, pleasantly surprising, orderly, and easy.

Please take time to play in the rain. Take it from someone who has been forced to watch her children have fun through the living room window, time after time. Your kids are getting bigger. They are one day closer to leaving your house than they were yesterday. There will soon be a day they won’t ask you to play in the rain with them.

Do it.

And give God thanks for playing in the rain kind of days.

But, do it soaking wet, with your face towards the sky.

You won’t be sorry.

I know I wasn’t.

See?