{my graphics are free goodies for you}
I step off the ferry and look around me in wonder. I’ve arrived on Bainbridge Island, a small community just across from Seattle, for a vacation with family. For years when I thought of this area I pictured rain, rain, rain. And until I saw it in person I missed what should have been obvious: All that rain leads to a lot of unexpected loveliness, life and growth.
Flowers surround every sidewalk, stretch up toward windowsills and turn backyards like my Great-Aunt Fern’s into kaleidoscopes of color. I saw this when we visited five years ago. And just like before what’s in front of me fills my heart with hope.
Because I’m a woman who has known rain in her life. I imagine you have too. And we will again. So it’s a soul-strengthening comfort to know that not a single drop will be in vain. Because we serve a God who takes what falls in our life and mysteriously transforms it into glory.
I don’t know what life holds for you today. Maybe your sky is blue and sunny. Maybe thunder roars overhead and you’re soaked to the bones. But I do know what’s coming even if it doesn’t feel like it right now…
Unexpected loveliness.
Life.
Growth.
Like a rainbow after the flood, every flower we see this time of year is like a promise that reminds us “In all things God works for the good of those who love him” {Rom. 8:28}. That doesn’t take the hurt away. He understands when our tears fall along with the rain. But He wants us to know the pain will not last forever.
There will be beauty again.
XOXO
Holley Gerth
p.s. Are you or someone you love going through a tough time? You’ll find daily encouragement in What Your Heart Needs for the Hard Days.
