“For He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” - Matthew 5:45
Rain is an interesting thing. It’s a critical component of life. The LORD is the One that determines when it rains, where it rains, and how much. It’s interesting to see how God uses rain in two different ways. Rain was NOT the cause of the global flood during the days of Noah, but it has been the cause of many local floods since. It’s crazy how rain is a necessary element for the planet to nourish the land, but if too much comes too fast, there can be problems.
To me, that’s one of the most interesting things about how the LORD works. That’s what has me marveling over the LORD’s work. The LORD can use one thing to cause two contrary results, sometimes at the same time! Rain is certainly one of the ways that God does that. When you think about that reality, it gives helpful perspective when storms come in life.
This is especially true when you think about the most compelling illustration of how God works this way - through the death of Jesus. Jesus’ death was excessively violent and was THE greatest injustice of all time – literally. Yet, it was the public murder of God-in-flesh, that ushered in the greatest gift known to mankind. Jesus’ death produced two very different results. His death justifies the ungodly who believe, while also condemns the unfaithful. God did one work at that time, which produced two incredible results, that are on total opposite ends of the spectrum!
When I took this photo of rain, this is the concept I was thinking of. I was in Southern California when I took this photo, which at the time, was experiencing incredible drought. The rain on this particular day came down pretty hard. This is a photo of some of the rain hitting our swimming pool, which was nearly flooded and overflowing. That being said, while the rain was a good thing and was necessary at that time, it was also threatening to cause problems. When I started shooting, I didn’t want to capture the whole scene. I wanted to focus on the beauty of the raindrops splashing, creating these cool shapes, ripples, textures, and even color gradients. I wanted the context of the rain to be ambiguous. When you look at this photo, you have no idea that the rain on this day caused problems. When you look at this photo, you can’t see if this rain is helping vegetation. It’s just water droplets hitting in various places. Who knows what’s happening around that area – it could be good or bad.
I liked this idea, because whenever the LORD works, He usually produces at least two results at the same time. We never really know what is truly good or bad in the moment. In Matthew 5:45, Jesus said that the Father brings rain on the just and the unjust. There’s two ways to look at that principle. You could say that the LORD brings the benefits of rain to all people, whether believers or non-believers. That’s true. You could also say that, the LORD brings the inconvenient and destructive factors of rain on both believers and non-believers. That’s true too. Either way, rain can produce good and bad things, for both believers and non-believers. Who knows what God is going to do with it…
That’s where a photo like this can simplify things. When we zoom in to the details of life, sometimes we can see the glory of the LORD Himself, regardless of the actual circumstances, and whether they’re good or bad. Sometimes we need to be less-focused on the circumstances around us, and remember the fundamental glory of God. Sometimes we just need to imagine the fundamental principle that God made rain, and get lost in that, before we have an opinion about how God is using it.
Think about this: The LORD made clouds that hold enough water to nourish the whole planet. Those same clouds can also destroy things. Yet you can fly airplanes through those clouds that are holding all that water! How did God do that? God is able to disperse rain all over, so that it doesn’t come out like a stream, but is spread abroad, to affect large areas. If we want a stream of water to turn into a spray, we need tools and attachments. The LORD doesn’t. The LORD just commands rain, and through the authority of His Word, is able to drop water from the sky, creating these shapes, textures, color variations, and so forth, like we see in this photo. God can use these tiny beautiful drops in ways that sustain life, or destroy certain factors of life. That’s pretty amazing!
We need to think about the attributes and nuances of God that remind us of His glory. If we can “zoom in” so-to-speak, we might find that the LORD is using the difficulties in our lives to cleanse our souls and minds. The rain is going to drop whether we like it or not; and the rain is going to do one of two things. Sometimes it’s better to marvel over the One who drops the rain, instead of dwelling on the effects of the rain that we don’t yet understand.