"Singin' in the Rain...🎵"

This has been the view from a dining room window, only in various stages of the times of the day, for almost the entire month of June.

"Rain, rain, go away..."

at least for a little while so we can plant our garden!!

This has to be a record breaking rain season, where I live anyway, because the ten feet deep gully next to our house which has been dry for decades, was burgeoning with a foamy, swirling mass of WATER! I'm talking rapids here. I'm talking Niagara Falls going over the road, which was becoming narrower by the minute, ( threatening to become non-existent!). cascading down into it's quickly fashioning cliff creating a new riverbed! The sound was deafening! Where the gully formed in snake-like curves not to far from our house, it became obsolete in the evolving rapids like those on the old movie "The African Queen". We got seven inches of rain in one to two hours, I was told!! & I wasn't even aware it was happening! It was a very muggy day, as you  can guess, so I had my window unit air-conditioner on, plus fans running throughout the house & even with these I was perspiring profusely like a river (hmmm. Do you suppose it was prophetic for what was happening practically outside my door? 😓 Slight exaggeration.) With all of that clamor, including the running of the dishwasher, washing machine & vacuum cleaner, I didn't even hear it raining! When my son came home from work, he rushed inside the house & said "Hey you guys, you have to come out & see this!" We did 'sea' it. What a shock!! So, I prayed that the Lord would set the path & boundaries for the flood & to protect & deliver human & animal life. The only loss that I know of is that someone's shed ended up in the middle of the highway, but standing upright!!!

It has rained in some degree or another every day since then, but we have been getting some sun also which is wonderful. There is still water at the bottom of the gully so now I will have to pray against temporary mosquito resorts for vacationing blood banks in the insect form.

However, the redeeming silver lining is it draws the shy & hushed little fireflies that travel with their own source of light in magical lanterns that turns the woods in the back of our house into a land of enchantment, which I have seen very rarely in the Black Hills of South Dakota in the almost 40 years we've lived here, the kind of nights that call for whispering, or better, complete silence. It's kind of like you are part of something, that's not of this world, even ethereal. So beautiful & quieting & calming to the heart & mind. I am so grateful that God created fireflies. 🧚 Kind of like diminutive fairies, don't you think?

Another blessing of the abundance of rain is we know that we will be able to have fireworks without any threat to fires! & I do LOVE fireworks!  The grass does get pretty tall though because it's too wet to mow between rains. & a lot of my flowers are looking rather bedraggled, taking up a 'coming up for the last time hand above water' posture. The weather report gives hope though with some coming days of hot & sunny weather. 

A welcome hiatus from the rainy weather. 

My roses are blooming beautifully & profusely, though a little unkempt, once again because the rain kept me from being able to give the tending they need. But oh, the fragrance!

This beauty if from my Mother's Day rose bush that my son got for me last Mother's Day. Can you see the sweet little raindrops on the petals? Divine fragrance too. Ahhhh...

I moved this kettle of pink Bacopa to a sunnier spot. Aren't the flowers precious?

Welcome, won't you come in?

💗

We welcomed two new additions to our family this month.

This is Boy Clooney.

This is sister Patsy. Aren't they the most adorable?!

I mentioned to my youngest daughter that if I ever got another cat, I would like to get an orange one. Two days later, voila! Clooney magically appeared. A week later, sister Patsy appeared. Hmmm. gotta watch what you say around here. BUT...they have brought so much joy, laughter & sunshine into our lives (messes too 😬!)

More about them later!

Although we have had a superfluity of rain, or maybe it's just come in 'condensed condensation' so to speak, it's usually referred to as a blessing, sometimes a disguised blessing, in the Bible. 

Such as this, from Acts 14:7

"He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven..."

Kindness

"Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days & forty nights ..."  Genesis 7:4

Judgment

but it was to cleanse the world of the rampant evil of all who lived at the time. One of those blessings in disguise.

"He provides rain for the earth; He sends water on the countryside." Job 5:10

"...He sends rain on the righteous & unrighteous."

Matthew 5:45

It's a good thing too because we might not get much rain if it depended on our righteousness. Yikes!

& then, there's rain that comes because of the blessing of obedience.

"Teach them the right way to live & send rain on the land  you gave your people for an inheritance."

1 Kings 8:36

This could also be the land of our hearts.

I think my favorite rains are after an extended period of dry weather, even drought. Not that we should experience droughts of the land or droughts of the heart. As we live every day lives according to the teachings of scripture, in fellowship & obedience with & to Jesus, we can live in the blessing of 'rains' continuously, whether of the land or heart. However, understanding the perversity of our fickle hearts that sometimes desire to live our lives our own way ( It's called rebellion, i.e. sin), the droughts come, alienating ourselves from blessing. God didn't remove blessing from us. We removed ourselves from His blessing. Which equals...

Drought.

But even drought can be a blessing in disguise when we finally recognize it, because it slays the giants of Pride & Independence.

Which brings about death. Hence the word 'slay'. Death to the tyrant of the god of self. (Selfies are so prevalent these days aren't they?)  Which then turns around & brings life, like the seed that dies in the ground & then lives to grow into something productive, or, doing what it was created to do. Then, the humble gratitude attitude. All because of rain that's given, or rain that's withheld. It's life giving both directions. The world cannot exist without rain. Plain & simple.

Neither can our hearts. 

Soooo...

I guess that I will keep singin' in the rain. "It's a glorious feeling, I'm happy again!" 😊

Raintree Perk of the Day:

"Rain is grace...without rain, there would be no life."