Summer Rain

"Are there any among the false gods of the nations that can bring rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Are you not he, O Lord our God? We set out hope on you, for you do all these things."                                             Jeremiah 14: 22

There is something so sweet about rain without storms.  I love a good thunderstorm and I love that they illustrate how awesome and mighty God is.  But, to me, rain -- just rain, is a picture of God's grace.  It is refreshing, cleansing, life-sustaining, and yet he doesn't have to send it.  He doesn't owe it to us, and we haven't and can't do anything to deserve it.  It's a gift of unmerited favor. Just like Christ "who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death -- even death on a cross!"

I think my kids would agree: