We are all so sick of the rain. For many of us, it’s an annoyance and an inconvenience. And perhaps a slight depressant. People are dragging into the office this morning, blaming yet another rainy day. What is an inconvenience to us, however, is much more for many others. Farmers are watching some freshly-planted seeds rot in the field. The recent flooding in Nashville cost lives and property. When driving across Missouri the other day, I saw a rain-swollen Missouri River. How much more rain can our saturated land take?
There is hope. The long-range forecast shows (finally) a shift in the weather beginning tomorrow. The rain will end, and springtime warmth will come. Or so we hope.
On this rainy day, I am working on a Sunday sermon. Jesus was saying goodbye to his disciples on the eve of his death. Things were going to get much worse in the immediate future, before they got better. Even as he was saying goodbye, though, he was promising them a future of hope. “My peace I leave with you,” he told them, so “don’t let your hearts be worried, and don’t let them be afraid.” Audacious words from a man who was about to die a horrible death.
Hope is like that. It triumphs even in the face of death. Or another rainy day.
