Happy Listening!

Rain. There is something so powerful about it. As much as I love a beautiful, warm, sunny day to get outside and be active, there is something equally as wonderful about a rainy day. Maybe not the strong, scary downpour that makes you feel like your car is going to be washed off the highway, or the giant puddles that you inevitably end up ankle deep in no matter how much you attempt to avoid them, but that peaceful, steady rain that taps against the roof and the windows while you settle yourself on your sofa with a blanket, a mug of steaming coffee, and a good book.  Sometimes I just like to sit and listen. This might be cheesy, but a lot of the time I think the rain is telling me something (or is it those voices in my head again? I’m not really sure). These are some of the best moments of meditation for me where God is telling me to stop everything and just listen for his voice. Sometimes he speaks, sometimes he doesn’t, but almost always, I feel his peace.  Since we’ve been in San Antonio we have only had a handful of rainy days, and for this I am so thankful. But because of that, I feel like each one of these rare rainy days is a little present to me with a tag that reads “For: Katy ... Happy listening!”  

The last time we flew on an airplane the weather was terrible. We were heading home from Colorado that night and, as usual, the minute we hit bad turbulence, I thought we were going down. I began to formulate my game plan of who to call and what I would say in my farewell message to them if we started our plummet to the earth. Finally, to calm my nerves, I put on my headphones and listened to some chill, peaceful music while I turned out my overhead lamp and looked out of the little porthole-like window and onto the huge dark sky. What I found amazed me. How had I not noticed the beauty that lay out there in the midst of my panic over my extremely unlikely death that was about to occur? I’m not sure if I can do this scene justice, but I will try. I don’t know if I’ve ever felt much closer to God than I did at that moment. It was almost as if I was eye level with him and what he see’s on a daily basis. Out in the distance was a vast stretch of storm clouds miles and miles long. As my music played through my headphones, the lightening bolts seemed to dance along with it. With each bolt of lightening, the whole night sky lit up before me over and over again, as if someone was directing an orchestra where the spot lights are flashing on and off to capture each of the amazing performers in action. Every flash left a distinctive mark in the sky, and as suddenly as they appeared, they vanished just as quickly. I’ve never seen 5 or 6 or 7 bolts of lightening strike at one time, and what made it even more intense was the fact that I felt so far and separated from this scene while at the same time, like I was a part of it all. I was completely at peace and in awe of this power and knowledge that is so beyond me.

Needless to say, I was no longer worried about plummeting to my death. If I was going down, well then at least I could come back up here and enjoy this scene a little longer instead of passing it by and heading back into empty, dark skies again. I could have stared out of that window forever enjoying the beauty and the power of that moment, but like these rare rainy days, it is a moment that I will hold onto in my memory, and a moment that spoke to my soul like nothing else ever could if it was in front of me every day. So next time you hear the tap - tap - tap of the run off from your roof, stop what you are doing, curl up on the sofa, and take a good, long listen to the rain. That rain sure has a lot to say.

* For those of you who might like the full experience, or at least part of the experience that I had, listen to this song, then maybe listen to it while re-reading the visual I attempted to make for you all. It might not impact you as it did me, but this is just a little taste of what was spoken to me :)