I Feel Most Alive in the Rain...

I have determined that I feel most alive when it's raining, and when I get to bask in the rain. Today I went food shopping and was walking outside amidst other Louisvillians running from their cars to and fro Kroger, leaving carts in the middle of the isles so as to not have to be caught in the rain much longer. Even though this is day 7 of some kind of sickness that I've inherited, I looked up at the building next to me. The tops of it had rain soaking like little icicles weaving down the sides of the brick. I looked towards the road, the sky, back to the store, just taking in what I saw, standing in the rain. Of course I didn't have my rain coat with me, but it didn't seem to matter. I think the little pelts of water remind me that I am human, that it is a gift that I often am moving too fast to stop and appreciate. Why don't I look around more often? Why don't I recognize the beauty that is? Or do I? Do I doubt myself? Does rain make me do this?

All I know is this day it reminded me of a beautiful rainstorm that we had at camp this summer, and how we ran from the pavilion to the dining hall with 100 or so kids screaming, a few lagging behind enjoying it, and the counselors and adults trying to make sure they were all safe. What a beautiful memory.

Rain also reminds me of baptism. As I sit here in the Heine Brothers coffee shop and write about those visible signs of invisible grace that we call Sacraments, I am reminded of the rain, and the water that was sprinkled on me as a baby. I think of the congregation that took a pledge on my behalf, and the two brilliant, amazing, beautiful people who did the same in front of their peers and Christ, no doubt with my sister standing by. Where would I be without that promise? Where would I be without water? I wouldn't be alive. Does that connect to my baptism? That a majority of my body is made up of water, that many people in the world do not have the ability to turn a switch and water flows. What's the connection there? I think there is one...I'll have to think about it a bit further, but I think the fact that Christ called me through baptism and Christ also calls me to help those who don't have the luxuries I do have something to do with each other. Hmm...