Monday's Musings: Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall ~ Longfellow

by Mary Denman   @MaryDenman

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow says in his poem, The Rainy Day, "Into each life some rain must fall." He spoke very true words. 

While I love a good rainy day, not all rainy days are created equal. 

There are the ones when the sun hides and the clouds drop gentle waves of nourishing moisture to replenish the earth. 

Others leave behind banks of fog, to shroud the trees and blur the horizon. 

Some are accompanied by wind, lightning and thunder. 

Others leave destruction in their wake. 

They are certainly not created equal. 


Most often, rain is a gift of life. Plants can't grow without it. They need it to live. 

The absence of rain means drought. It means a struggle to survive. But then a deluge after a drought can cause havoc through floods. Thankfully, droughts and deluges don't happen very often. 

But throughout our lives, we must go through each kind. 

Gentle rain is cleansing. It washes away the dust and dirt that builds up in our lives. It's a wonderfully refreshing kind of the rain. Like in the spring, when pollen fills the air. Gentle rains wash it away so we can breathe freely again.

When howling rains come, accompanied by thunder and lightening, we need to seek shelter. We need to find a safe place to wait out the storm. 

If the clouds keep coming, bringing more and more moisture, we may need to watch out for floods. Or fallen trees. Too much rain isn't a good thing.

This all may seem fairly obvious, but if we stop and ponder, storms and rain can teach us great lessons. 

We can't control the weather. We can't pick and choose when and where it rains, or for how long. We can't start or stop the fog.

Just as we can't choose to avoid all difficulty in our lives.

Rain will come. So will struggles. But that's okay. It's what we do in response that's important. 

Grumbling and complaining won't get you anywhere and won't stop the rain....I know. I tried.

Instead, I found that leaning into God in the difficulties, and trusting him to see the bigger picture was how I got through one of the hardest times of my life. I lost my mom and father-in-law two weeks apart. Then my daughter married two weeks later. I felt like I was in a flood, grasping for air. The wedding was beautiful and bittersweet. I was thrilled for the marriage, but still reeling from the deaths. 

A couple of years later, I have a better perspective and I'm a stronger person because of what I went through. (Not that I feel stronger every day, mind you.) But I learned that God could get me through one of the hardest times of my life. That he could use it for good. Both in me and in others. 

Sometimes we see the clouds on the horizon and know a storm is brewing. Sometimes, it just blows in. But in either case, it's good to seek shelter. To find a safe place to be. God provided that for me. I learned I could trust him, even when I was scared and hurting. Even when it didn't make sense.

It wasn't always easy, but that's a lesson I'm glad I learned. I know where to seek shelter in the storms of life and I hope to help others find that shelter too.

Whether you're in a season of beautiful sunrises and sunny days, or in the midst of a heavy rain, I hope that you'll seek God in the midst of it. 

I'm glad I did. 


What season of life are you in? What have you learned from it?

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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow #Inspirational #Quote - "Into each life some rain must fall"(click to tweet)

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