As I sat in Trinh’s house visiting with this young girl about life, we discussed her
college, the things that she enjoys doing, the foods she likes– her face lit up as she told me about bánh xèo- we had it for lunch today and you
should totally try it- it is awesome. I felt a cool breeze come through the
house and asked maybe a little too excitedly if it was going to rain. She said no that she hoped not. She does not
like the rain. I just don’t understand. Why would you not like the rain? It is
so great! She told me it was boring because she has to stay inside when it
rains. I made some off handed comment about how she could go play in the rain
and then she would not be bored- I mean Jesus says in order to come into the
kingdom we must be like little children, right? I drop the conversation very
clear that I am not going to convince her that she should love rain in the same
way that I do.
After lunch I sat
down on the front porch with my book just as it started drizzling. I got up at
one point to walk through the house and find the entire family laying
lathargically around the house eyelids falling under the weight of the rain
falling. As I walked past one of the
aunts tells me I should go shower- I was confused for a minute “do I smell that
bad?” then I realized she meant in the rain. I quickly replied that I would if
she would. She laughed a nervous kind of laugh and I went into the kitchen to check
water levels of the back pond. As I returned she again said I needed to go
shower. Again I said I would if she would. At this encouragement she jumped up
from her reclining position in the hammock and directed me toward the door.
Being the Texas
girl that I am, I LOVE rain. I cherish it’s flowing from the sky. I eagerly
await it’s pouring into the ground. I yearn for it’s cleansing power. I have
been joining with millions of people in desperate prayers for rain to flow down
on our homeland as it has fallen into more and more extreme levels of drought.
like children laughing, squealing, kicking puddles at each other. Then we took turns
pulling water from the cistern that is now overflowing and showered each other
from it’s refreshingly cold abundance. She quickly swept the ground and we laid
down to allow this flow to fall on our bodies and the puddles on the ground
to saturate our backs. As we laid there
I noticed she was screaming “Thank you God! Hallelujah!” I quickly join into these
hollers of gratitude to our Father. As we layed there in the downpour I felt
the weight of my homeland. We praised God for this rain that is a welcome
relief from the oppressing heat of this land and I prayed for the same kind of
rain to fall on my homeland and bring some relief to it’s dry cracking
surfaces.
It was such a fun
day! We laughed a lot! It rained from lunch until well after we laid down for
bed. I love that the Lord provides so many opportunities for relationships to
be built and uses the substance of laughter to cement these relationships into
place.
