April Showers Bring…
Life on the Pasture
“April showers bring May flowers.” So goes the old rhyme. I had a 4th Grade teacher who used to say, “April showers bring May mud.” She was not a pessimist by any means. She was the girls’ softball coach and the spring rains brought cancelled practices and games. But there was always the hope of the sun coming out and drying things up so practices could take place and games played.
Today was kind of dark and dreary in the afternoon with plenty of rain. I started humming to myself the old Carpenters’ song “Rainy Days and Mondays.” Some of you may recall these lines: “Hangin' around / Nothin' to do but frown / Rainy days and Mondays always get me down.” But the rain stopped and skies cleared. My tune changed to the popular Beatles’ song “Here Comes the Sun.”
Music can be a powerful influence on our emotions. The question is: Which comes first? Does the music set the tone for our mood, or, as is usually the case for me, is the music a reflection of the mood you are already in?
David writes in Psalm 28: “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and He helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise Him.” (Psalm 28:7, NIV)
There is no question that this continuing pandemic is bringing with it plenty of “rainy” days which seem to bring only mud instead of flowers. And while is is relatively insignificant in the midst of all the tragedy going on around us, I am missing baseball (mostly watching my son play with his high school team). And yes, rainy days and Mondays can get me down.
But here comes the Son (as in our Lord Jesus, the very Son of God) to brighten everything up and say, “Trust in Me. I know how to do great things with mud.” Indeed He does. Check out John 9 where we read about Him spitting in the dirt, making mud, putting it on a blind man’s eyes, and having Him wash at the pool of Siloam, after which he came back seeing.
So even if our April showers bring more mud, we have a great God who will work through all things and bring about wondrous flowers of blessing.
– Pastor Schmidt