Puddles

Puddles

One day when my older two were little, 2 and 3, I took them outside after a rain shower.  We love rainy days.  Well, Micayla and I do.  We'd watch the rain make tracks on the windows, hug the sills and then then kiss them goodbye and fall into the grass.  We'd watch the lightning streak across the sky and count how many beats til our bones shook with thunder.  Dale, on the other hand, would stomp with his boots on, stick his lower lip out, point to the door and say, "when?" Meaning, when could he go outside?  He loved being out there.  He didn't find a grain of dirt that wasn't his friend...he loved all this friends and tried to bring them all home.  He loved running, jumping, rolling in mud, frogs, bugs, rocks...um, outdoors.  

Which brings me to the day of the rain shower.  It hadn't rained long.  By the time we went out, the driveway was nearly dry, the grass looked like it had drips of dew on it.  I was in the garage getting their bikes out and when I turned around, they were in the street.  Now, we didn't live on a horribly busy street, but it was a street!  With moving cars.  That came by regularly.  I believe I reached them at the speed of mom when I realized that they found the only puddle in the city of Janesville.  They were soaked from knees down, hands to elbows.  Faces shining not from the rain but from sheer kid-joy.  Even my prissy-girl, Micayla, was enjoying herself. It was a beautiful sight.

Yeah, taken another day on the sidewalk.  Cute, huh?

I find it hard, even at their age now, to restrain my kids after a good rainfall.  They're out there stomping, splashing, playing in the puddles.

In the street...again

I guess you never grow out of it... A year or so I went to Wal-Mart to get a few things.  I knew it was going to rain, but I didn't know how bad.  The lights went out, people were freakin' out.  I thought it was cool.  I've always loved storms. I grew up in the country.  Every time there was a bad storm or tornado warning, my mom would shoo us down into the basement.  I somehow found myself sneaking up by my dad watching the storms roll by.  Fascinating.

Anyway,  after I checked out at Wal-Mart, it was pouring out.  It was like God had unzipped the bag of rain and it came down in sheets.  I stood under the awning a few seconds to see if it would let up. It didn't.  I watched a lady unload her groceries into the back of her car, struggling under a Hello Kitty umbrella.  Hilarious!  A lady was hunched under the awning with me, and said, "well, now or never" then booked to her car.  I just laughed.  I started to run to the van, but it was such warm rain.  The water was past my ankles soaking through my flip flops making them squishy.  Fun.  I strolled to the van.  As I was unloading my car, I glanced at the lady with the umbrella and literally laughed out loud.  I don't know why she bothered, she was getting just as wet with it.  I slammed the door shut and took the cart back (as well as umbrella lady's...I've never seen a lady more grateful and miserable at the same time).  On my way back to the van, I stomped in every puddle bring some very odd looks  from adults, and longing from some children.  It was fun.  I looked like a drowned rat.  But it was fun.

drowned rat

A few months later, Micayla, her friend, Desirea and I went to a concert in Beloit.  When we arrived we quickly found out that there was a misprint on the artists website and the concert was at a different location.  It had rained on the way there so, yep, lots of puddles.  I watched the girls as they ran from puddle to puddle....well, yeah, I joined too.  We watched our flip flops float in the deeper ones and splashed each other like kids. 

Desirea and Micayla

We drove back home, looking for places where we could find more puddles.  We found them.  As the girls ran across the parking lot, I turned around and saw this ginormous double rainbow stretched across the sky.  It was the first time that I ever saw one from one end to the other.  I told the girls that and they said in unison, "really?"  I said, yeah...at least I don't remember noticing it. Maybe my eyes had never been opened to it before.  I remember seeing a million rainbows in my life.  Corners, tops, the beginning here, the top there, the end over there.  But not one in it's entirety.  I tried taking it's picture on my phone, but it wouldn't fit.  It was too big to contain.  It was breathtaking. I kept saying it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.  I felt like that random guy on YouTube.  "What does it mean?!"  haha Well, not quite that bad.  But this rainbow was amazing.

God's Promise...Picture given to me by Micayla through the magic of Picnik

I wonder how many things my eyes haven't been paying attention to.  Countless, I suppose.

When my kids were little, if they had something on their chin or cheek, I would lick my finger or thumb and wipe it off.  My husband would look at me with disgust and say, "Ugh, my mom use to do that to me; I hated that."

Yet, I remember that story in the Bible where Jesus used his spit, mixed it with mud, put it on the blind man's eyes and healed him (John 9:6).  That's my prayer to the Lord... that He would lick his finger, wipe the dirt off my heart and heal it.  That He would open the eyes of my heart so I can see the things around me...see Him.

There are times when I become so busy, irritated, frustrated, complacent, have tunnel vision on the tasks that I have to complete, that I don't look at the things around me.  There's an acronym about the word "busy" that spells out Being Under Satan's Yolk.  I think that's true.  We get so busy that we forget about loved ones needs.  Forget to look at God's creation. Forget to pray and study His word.  Forget to play in the puddles.

Lighten up.  It's a rainy day.  Enjoy it.  He has things that He wants us to see...to big for hearts to even contain.

"Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine..."  Eph. 3:20