We all grew up with the saying, “April showers bring May flowers.” It was said whimsically, hopefully. We know that the flowers are the blessings—the beauty—of life; ah, but the showers…, they get in the way of life. We may handle a gentle Spring rain, or a mild thunderstorm, but the fierce lightning of a potential tornado sends us, at best under, under the covers and at worst into the storm cellar….
Sadly, instead of seeing the good that comes from the “April shower”, thunderstorms and tornadoes, we want sunshine all the time, but a line in a song my son-in-law, Josh, wrote observes, “all sunshine makes a desert, you know.…” It is the April showers that quench a dry and thirsty soul. It is the thunderstorms that drive us under the covers of prayer and under the wings of the LORD; … and it is the tornados of life that remove a lot of what got in the way of our relationship with the Lord Jesus….
Painful, but true. Questions of “why” this or “how come” that may still linger in the aftermath, but as our Beloved brother, the Apostle Peter notes:
“Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed.”—1 Peter 4:12–13 (NIV2011)
and
“In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed”—1 Peter 1:6–7, (NIV84)
All the “April showers” we encounter are ordained to bring the beautiful glorious “May flowers” of our Lord Jesus Christ’s glory. How? Revealed in and through us. Just amazing, isn’t it?
In the Hope of May Flowers blooming,
Pastor Mike