The Rains Will End

Nearly seven years ago we left all that we knew in Georgia and moved to the beautiful foothills of Virginia. The best that we knew at the time, we were venturing out into country living and becoming increasingly less dependent upon the world and her systems. I’ll never forget that first Winter, after we had purchased our own cows and had them brought onto the property. Life was surely quite full of new adventures in that season.

Southwestern Virginia winters are primarily marked by constant rain and dark, dreary days. The ground just never really dries out until late April. We moved here in the Spring season, when all was incredibly beautiful and green. But after our first Winter here had a couple of months in its pocket, I could no longer find the beautifulness that we had moved into, no matter how hard I tried.

Pasture areas, that became feed centers for the cows, went through an incredible transformation. Where there was normally beautiful green grass, there became ankle-deep slop and mud. Some areas literally become impassable entirely. As one who was not raised on a farm, I literally did not know that the earth could be transformed into such a consistency. I remember being quite stressed over it at the time.

I learned however, as that first winter here moved out and the sunshine returned, all would be alright. As absolutely unbelievable as it seems, the earth always settles back down and grass returns. Year after year. Sunshine and time always bring the beautiful green pastures back to life again. It’s amazing really.

Today, however, we are still in the midst of the dark and wet Winter. As my son and I went out again this morning to tend to chores, we encountered the Winter’s toll yet again. “Will it ever stop raining, Dad?” he appropriately sighed and asked. “Eventually,” I said. “It always does. Sunny days will return, we just have to wait... and practice patience in the waiting.”

From there, I did some introspection. As is usually the case, this way of life is always pointing to greater, deeper things - if one has the eyes to see. Our lives right now are kind of like the conditions at my farm. It’s been “raining” non-stop for quite a long time now. The ground has become hard to walk through. At most every turn there is something that needs tended to, yet I can’t quite pull it off. In important life issues, I too am often found looking up, sighing and asking “Father, will ‘the rain’ ever stop?”

Yet here’s the encouraging part. Just like I have learned in the natural, even in only our few years here, the rains will stop and the sun will return. The land will again return to its beauty. Likewise, the challenges of life also move as seasons. Some are surely longer than others, but we have a long, ongoing testimony that the clouds will one day clear; the sun will return and pleasant days will resume.

Until then, we endure well and patiently wait. We tap maple trees for sap. We play in the snow, when it comes. We laugh together when our boots get us stuck in the mud. And we bicker. We grumble. Most importantly however, we constantly lift our eyes together, to where our help comes from and we search for the good.

This is no mere “think positive, happy thoughts” endeavor. No. It’s much greater than that for any man could do that in his own strength. My ability to endure well is not my own. Our hope is not sourced in conditions and circumstantial changes. It is much deeper and ultimately rooted in the fact that we are but sojourners here. My Father is fully capable of properly holding and handling all of what sits round about us in the season. No matter how many concerns I have penned in the journal of my heart, He is there.

So what about you friend? How are you enduring in your circumstances? Are you facing them head-on for what they are or are you merely looking away? Have you been empowered by the Set-Apart Spirit to endure well? Are you living as though your life is but a vapor and is then gone away? Do you willingly embrace suffering, in order to learn obedience as Messiah did? Have you entered covenant with Yahweh, via His Son Yeshua and thereby have a promise that is yet before you?

Let us be found properly situated in humility before our Elohim Most High. He alone is enthroned above all principalities, powers, authorities, kings, rulers. Yes. But, perhaps most of all we need to establish and then remind ourselves that He is also installed and enthroned as being seated ruling over my entire life. Right here. Right now.