He commands the rain (or the dogs)

14 December 2020

Some mornings, when I wake up, I can hear the rain playing on the roof. It is a very pleasant sound while I’m still snuggled up. But. I’m on the morning dog walking duty. And I’m fine with the winter cold, but I do not like getting wet. And neither does the dogs. And on top of that, when they do get wet, they stink like, well, wet dogs. And then I need to wash them and they need to be combed out. Drama, which I can do without on a Monday morning before my workweek starts.

So, I have often prayed for a dry moment in the mornings, for a break in the rainfall, for a ray of early morning moonlight shining through the dark clouds. And I’ve sometimes felt a bit of selfish guilt at my request. It sometimes feels like a very selfish thing to ask to stay dry when others have much larger problems.

So this Saturday morning, the dogs woke up at 5h30. I’m a morning person, but really, 5h30? But Leo starts barking & now I’m awake, no way I sleep through that. So, I start the perculator up to be sure there’s coffee when we come back & we set out in the darkest hour of the day. I put on some Hillsongs on my phone, turn the volume up higher than usual because no-one is around to hear me singing, and I worship the God of Creation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfVd5x9W1Xc. I returned to a nice cup of coffee and quality time in God’s word.

At 7h00, which would be our normal walking time, the rain sets in with a ferocity that I have not seen in some weeks.

This morning, I wake up with the words of another song repeating in my head (Miracles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Vt9n4vvtxg) as I go down to the living room for a cup of coffee and time in the Word.

The One who made the blind to see
Is moving here in front of me, moving here in front of me
The One who made the deaf to hear
Is silencing my every fear, silencing my every fear

I become just became aware of the sound of soft rains on the river. And I realize that

The One who makes the dogs to sleep
Is pouring out His blessings over me

The rains have just stopped, and I can hear the dogs stirring downstairs. We will go out for our walk soon. They slept an hour & a half later than on Saturday. Both times, seemingly in order to miss getting wet. Thinking back to the last 2 weeks, I realize that it rained almost every morning. But not once did we get wet.

We serve a God of miracles. Nothing is too large for Him. And apparently, He also works in small ways, organizing the rain, or the sleep patterns of my dogs, in order to allow me to stay dry. And I wasn’t even asking for a miracle, yet He supplies for the ones that He loves in their sleep (Psalm 127)