Really, really random

So there I was last night, mowing my lawn, when I noticed how beautiful the sky was. Here in southeast Texas, we get some very beautiful skies. The clouds are very low to the ground and move very quickly across the sky. Often, these clouds will catch an updraft and start to pile up on top of themselves in great towering columns of clouds. This is different from the huge thunderheads I am familiar with in Utah, where the entire sky can sometimes be filled with enormous storm cells that move about like Spanish Galleons on the Atlantic. No, these clouds are slender and narrow in comparison, like pillars of the sky. Last night one of these pillars started forming south west of my house. Since they are so narrow, it's very hit and miss if you will get rain. This one looked like it was on a collision course with my yard, however, so I watched it. It was also incredibly beautiful, because the smaller, lower clouds scudded along in front of it while the towering, amazingly white column of cloud moved more sedately along behind them. After a few minutes as the sun was setting the top of this cloud formation started turning pink, catching the last remnants of the dying day and setting the sky ablaze with it's glory.

Alas, the wind did not shift and the rain was brought directly over my house. I had only a little yard left to mow, and the storm was not terrible, so I tried to hurry and finish up the last little bit before it became a deluge. I finished the last little bit just as the rain really started in earnest. I hustled the lawnmower back to the garage and pulled my car in just in time for the rain to quit. Really! It was amazing!

And I thought of that verse in the New Testament that goes:

(Matthew Chapter 5)
43 ¶ Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy.

44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. (emphasis added)

I won't say whether I am one of the just or unjust. All I know is I got a little rain. :-)

I know sometimes we feel like the rain cloud follows us around. Like that scene in the Truman Show... I can state unequivocally that it is just our turn for the rain. Much of life is painful or unpleasant. It's true. There's just no way around it. But bread must be kneaded, iron must be smelted, and gold must be purified it it's to be of any value or use. I don't know why some people struggle and others don't. All I know for sure is that there will be a just compensation made for all of our unjust suffering. I wonder how much of my suffering is a result of poor choices... I also wonder how much of my life is blessed because consequences of my decisions are removed by a loving Heavenly Father...

Certainly I have been blessed beyond measure. Even though I get rained on once in a while...