We are enjoying delightful April showers. I'm going to need my smiley face umbrella today. We get downpours so rarely in Denver. Yesterday it was so stormy that there was a tornado warning out near my school. We spent an hour "duck and covering" and waiting out the storm. Because I grew up in Washington State, I love rain.
When our kids were young, we spent almost every summer at Young Life camp. This is Malibu Club on a rare sunny day, but most days I juggled the stroller, a big umbrella, raincoat clad preschoolers, and walked up the boardwalks to meals and then back again to stoke the wood stove in our deliciously damp smelling cabin. As teenagers heard about their Savior, I busied myself in the background. Our kids have epic memories of their rainy summer days in British Columbia, privileged guests in a remote wooden camp in the Princess Louisa Inlet. It's rare for a rainy day to come and go without my heart revisiting Malibu Club.
This is my golf course. When I was four years old, our family of seven moved from a cute little cottage in town to a modern five bedroom home across the street from this golf course. None of us ever mastered the game of golf, but we spend days and days of our childhood looking out the window at hole # 9. Gumbo Lily reminded me of this today because she posted about her prairie yard. Rain or shine, dedicated golf enthusiasts played. Big golf umbrellas spotted the landscape and roads winding around our neighborhood offered views of sand traps and water obstacles. I don't enjoy a rainy day without my mind floating back to my memories of that glorious green view and even the smell of the club house.
Here's Mary, one of my literary heroines. Remember what the sudden London downpour did to the chalk pavement pictures Bert drew?
Yes, tut-tut the rain is pouring down and spattering on our smooth driveway. The neighbor's crab apple tree that greets us this spring morning, well . . . it's just about ready to come into glory. I can't wait.
Rain is so cleansing, so nourishing. It reminds me of a song I like:
Rain Lord oh rain Lord
Rain Master Jesus, rain
Rain your Spirit in my heart
Rain Master Jesus rain.
I'm so glad He does.
