Rain...

"There's still some magic. But it gets less and less every year. Maybe by the time I have a son, I won't even remember the magic anymore." -Wide Awake

"My nephew's awe and wonder caused him to surrender to the snow by falling into it. For a few magical seconds, the danger, of the snow had given way to the wonder of snow. For a brief moment my nephew came face-to-face with life at its fullest." -Mike Yaconelli, Dangerous Wonder

A couple weeks ago here in Fort Worth, it started to rain. It wasn't an altogether earth-shattering storm really. Noah wouldn't have been impressed. And yet there was something quite magical about it.

I was in a coffee shop that had once been a garage having hot chocolate with a parent of one of the teens I work with. The shop had those big commercial garage doors where cars would once have pulled in for repairs. It really is a pretty cool atmosphere to have a cup of hot chocolate with a friend, or read, or pretty much anything you'd do in a coffee shop.

And as we were talking I just happened to look out those garage doors, which are made of glass. And just above the buildings to the west was a humongous black cloud rolling in. Brad must've noticed me looking out the window as the cloud approached because he turned to look. It was truly something quite spectacular.

I'd heard of these Texas storm clouds that roll in, but this was my first live experience. As we were chatting, the black mass inched closer and closer. Slowly the wind outside picked up, and spare trash started whipping around the parking lot. And then little drops of water started falling.

Needless to say we wrapped up our conversation pretty quick to try and beat the heavy stuff back to our offices, but it was no use. Within a minute of starting the car the heavens had opened and we were in a full-blown downpour. You know the kind: when you put your wipers on full-blast but they don't quite cut it.

Well I made it back to the church and started walking to the door when something happened. I just stopped. In the pouring rain!

There was something perfect to it. So I started dancing. Dancing! There was something very Gene Kelly about it. But that was all I could do.

I started twirling and spinning in circles. In the parking lot of a church in the middle of a busy downtown of a massive city. People with umbrellas passed by. Cars slowly sped by. Their looks were somewhere between bewilderment and pity. But for just a second it didn't matter. The storm was perfect! It was beautiful! It was FUN! It was the kind of rain that MAKES you start dancing, because anything else would have been wrong.

I don't know what it was about that afternoon that made me stop. Rain happens all the time. Maybe a thousand times in my life. There wasn't anything different in this storm. But I stopped.

I wonder why we don't stop more often. Have we gotten so busy that we miss the magic all around us? HAVE I? With work, and school, and iPhones and Twitter, do we ever stop? Is it possible that as we've become more committed and more connected that we've actually become TOO busy?

I remember being about seven when we flew out to Virginia to visit our grandparents for Christmas. It's about the only Christmas of my childhood that I vividly remember. Why? Because there was a MASSIVE ice storm that knocked out power from December 23-26. Yep, right over Christmas Eve and Day. And it was the best Christmas of my life.

Instead of sitting on couches watching TV, we found some old sleds and slid down the sheet of ice that was Marquette Road. Instead of electricity, we lit the house by candles. There was something utterly magical about that Christmas. It was pure. It was magic. We played board games and sang Christmas songs.

We didn't need anything but what we had. We weren't on the clock and we weren't sitting around glued to the TV screen. I remember the way the light sparkled off the ice-covered grass. I remember the way I felt when my dad pulled me along the road in the sled.

I imagine we all have some kind of similar story. Our greatest memories are rarely those that happen in front of a computer screen or tapping our thumbs to a phone. But is it possible that our stories are SO intertwined with the busyness of our lives that we are losing the ability to stop and dance in the rain? Is it possible that we've gotten SO addicted to the busyness of our lives that to stop and soak in the beauty around is more burden than blessing?

I love that I have to drive straight east to get to work and due west to get home. I get to see the beauty of a sunrise to start the day and the majesty of a sunset to end it. Every day God is painting a tapestry around us, reminding us to stop and just rest, that He is providing what we need. He is weaving a masterpiece each second capable of mesmerizing us.

But not only that, He is reminding us how precious life is, that it is something to find joy in. Maybe this is why Jesus says the children understand the Kingdom of God better than the rest of us. You don't have to tell a kid twice to play in the mud. It's an adventure. A messy and dirty adventure, but the smile on their faces tells a much more important truth: that stopping and laughing and enjoying the life we've been given is much better. Why not go dance in the rain today!

forever unfinished...