Rhett is always faithfully by my side, even in the storms of life!
There’s a quote I have in our kitchen that says “Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain.” Well, in my case, recently, it was about slipping and falling and busting my butt in the rain. Literally. In life and physically.
This past Saturday, it was a beautiful day for a garage sale. After three moves in the past 2 years, I had lots of glamorous decor I was purging and ready to sell at our community garage sale. I had everything set up on display like walking into a neighborhood Home Goods, and the sun was shining gloriously on my decor diva display.
Well, out of the blue, I felt a few sprinkles on my shoulder mid morning. But looking up, I knew the mist would pass. Oh the contrary, and within 10 minutes, the sky decided to drop and a downpour of rain drowned ALL my nice stuff! Stephen had gone to work, my mom had stopped by but already left, and it was just me, and #poodlechild, by ourselves to start rushing in hauling dozens of pieces of furniture and decor back into the garage and out of the random Florida thunderstorm that ruined my garage sale, and now most of my belongings.
In the midst of my frustration, I kept saying to myself, “Lord, I know it’s just stuff… it’s JUST stuff. I was getting rid of it all anyway.” Yet, that “stuff” was also memories now being drowned out and soaked. It literally rained on my parade.
As #poodlechid and I, both now soaking wet, ran back and forth grabbing what I could piled into my hands to quickly put back in the garage, I took a wrong step and slipped in my garage with my feet in the air as my bum came crashing down hard on the concrete. I was certain I did more damage to my back or neck, but thankfully, all I was left with was a tender tooshy. Yet, as I sat there on my garage floor, soaking wet and a hurt butt, all alone in my crisis, in shock of what just happened, I couldn’t help but let out a little cry, “LORD, really? What the heck? Help me!”
Next thing I know, as I picked my self up, and the items I had dropped, I look up to see my neighbors kids appear in the rain and start grabbing stuff out of my driveway and start bringing it all in my garage. Without asking, they jumped in and helped, volunteering to also get soaked in the rain themselves, just to simply come to my aid and “love your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27).
I wanted to cry again.
There in the midst of my frustration, right before my eyes, I saw a beautiful example of the Lord answering my cry for help, and how He always provides when we least expect it.
But more so, it was a beautiful analogy of doing life together. Of helping each other through the struggle. Of realizing, we can’t do life alone, we need each other. Because it’s a given, the storms will come in life. And when we try to carry the burden by ourselves, we slip and fall. Because we aren’t designed to do life by ourself. We are designed to do life together as a spiritual family. As brothers and sisters in Christ. With our church family. Our neighbors. In our community. Even here on the internet in our online communities. That’s how God designed it. To love your neighbor as yourself.
The only thing I forgot to do that day was take that moment to go dance in the rain. Looking back I wish I would have. But instead, that day, I saw a different twist on that quote.
Life isn’t about waiting for the storms to pass… it’s about learning to “love others” in the rain.
I am grateful for the love my neighbors showed me that day. How can we all show love better to our own neighbors next door and in our every day life?
