It doesn't take much rain

Benin is above the equator. Well that's good to know. I tell you that
because it means the seasons are supposed to be same, but I am not so sure.
We actually did have cold season and now we are into rainy season. The problem is
that the usually winter then gradual heating up in spring and then heat of summer
and then cooling down of Autumn seems to be forgetten. Instead we experience
a cool season (October-February), a hot and dry season (February-April), then a kind of
light rainy season (May-June), and finally the full rainy season (July-September). It appears
things are reversed, winter right to summer, then spring and not really any autumn.
But whatever the case, it is nice weather. Where the other AFM missionaries are, the Badé's,
up north in Kandi, bordering Niger, it gets so hot that if you get water out of the faucet you have
to let it cool down before you can use, or you will get burned!
The rains have started coming once or twice a week for three weeks or so. I arrived right
at the end of the rainy season, just when everything starts to dry out and the world turns
brown and dusty, and when they burn all the dry grass to prevent wildfires, but also create
a charcoal landscape. Manny arrived in full swing of dryness and we both we always depressed
when we looked to the barren hills surrounding Nati. But the rains have come, and boy it sure
did not take much. Within these three weeks the grass is growing, plants are coming up where I thought
only dirt would live! We even looked to the hills and noticed the wonderful splashes of
green now covering the scenery! It got me thinking of really how little amount of rain it took
to get so much green back again. I've often thought how far I must be from God, how little I have
to offer Him, how hard it must for Him to deal with me. But then I think of the rain and the greenery, if
I would just be remember to be open to Him, he would pour His healing rain into my life, and surely
in mighty was, but also in small ways, and soon I can see that it didn't take much of His rain to revive my
life. And as those little rain showers of blessings come, my thirst grows and I open wide to receive a full
drenched rainy season kind of life! I recently watched a beautiful movie called "The Christmas Shoes"
It's a few years old, but the beginning the main character says, "that if we are open to it, we can see
miracles all around us, especially the small ones." (my paraphrase). Bring on the rain!