Bring May flowers
Sometimes when it is cloudy and rainy outside, I find my solar battery running low. And because my solar batter is low, so is my energy level. I, like many others will start to grumble about the lack of sunshine and the rain. I act just like a child whose parent told them they cannot have a second helping of cake. What I really need to do is thank God for the nourishing rain he is sending us, filling our wells, ponds, lakes and ground with much-needed moisture. Soon the trees will bring forth their leaves and flowers, because they have enough moisture to support them. And what a breathtaking view a field of wildflowers makes on a fresh spring morning. Just as parents do what is best for their children, our heavenly father sends what is best for us. And since only good comes from God, he also sends us strength to withstand anything Satan may send our way in the form of floods and famine.
As a child we use to play outside in the rain in our bathing suits. It would be as close as some of us would come to a pool or a lake except on special occasions or vacation. We loved the rain because we only saw the wonder of it, and the rainbow it would bring. We didn’t worry about our hair, makeup or clothes, just the joy of the rain. We also loved picking wild flowers like buttercups, violets, spring beauties, and spiders wart, (snot flowers), and wild phlox, for our mother, who with seven children never ran out of bouquets on her kitchen table. My mother would act like the snot flower bouquet we had just given her were long-stemmed roses.
Perhaps we need to go back to the feelings of our childhood, and enjoy the rain, knowing it will bring with it the beauty of the May flowers and lush green grass.
Music and songs can always lighten your spirits, so maybe if you went around singing this song from the Disney movie, “Bambi,” you would be happier about the rain:
LITTLE APRIL SHOWERS
Music and lyrics by Frank Churchill and Larry Morey
Drip, drip, drop, little April shower
Beating a tune as you fall all around
Drip, drip, drop little April shower
What can compare with your beautiful sound
Beautiful sound
Beautiful sound
Drip, drop, drip, drop
Drip, drip, drop, when the sky is cloudy
Your pretty music will brighten the day
Drip, drip, drop, when the sky is cloudy
You come along with a song right away
Come with your beautiful music
Drip, drip, drop, little April shower
Beating a tune as you fall all around
Drip, drip, drop little April shower
What can compare with your beautiful sound
Drip, drip, drop, when the sky is cloudy
You come along with your pretty little song
Drip, drip, drop, when the sky is cloudy
You come along with your pretty little song
Gay little roundelay
(gay little roundelay)
Song of the rainy day
(song of the rainy day)
How I love to hear your patter
Pretty little pitter patter
Helter skelter when you pelter
Troubles always seem to scatter
Drip, drip, drop, little April shower
Beating a tune as you fall all around
Drip, drip, drop little April shower
What can compare with your beautiful sound
Drip, drip, drop, little April shower
Beating a tune as you fall all around
Drip, drip, drop little April shower
What can compare with your beautiful sound
Beautiful sound, mmm
Now, don’t you feel better? We are given all we need by God to be happy. So all we have to do is decide we are going to be happy about the weather, no matter what it is, and in Northwest Indiana it can change every five minutes!
As parents we need to teach our children to be happy with their lot in life. That God has given them everything they need to be happy, so they determine whether or not to be happy. Yet again I must remind you parents to lead by example, and don’t let your children hear you grumble about the weather, or the neighbors, or grumble at all. Be happy, it is a choice!
We as writers often miss an opportunity to enhance a story with the elements of the weather. It can change a story’s mood, just like it can change ours in real life. But just as we are the authors of our fiction, we are also the author of our real life happiness.
And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
Genesis 1:14
He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills.
Who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains.
Psalms 104:10, 147:8
That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil.
Deuteronomy 11:14
Who giveth rain upon the earth, and sendeth waters upon the fields:
To cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is; on the wilderness, wherein there is no man;
To satisfy the desolate and waste ground; and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth?
Hath the rain a father? or who hath begotten the drops of dew?
Job 5:10, 38: 26-28
Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not thou he, O LORD our God? therefore we will wait upon thee: for thou hast made all these things
Jeremiah 14:22