Rainy Day's and Tin Roofs

I don't know exactly why I'm this way, but rainy days feel good to me.  Especially the slow, drizzling, kind. When weather comes in like this my favorite thing to do is to sit in our front room and look out the window to imagine that all of Dallas is being covered by a blanket and snuggling into repose.  My TV is off.  My computer is on only if I want it to be.  And my journal and Bible are close at hand.  

Now this happens with me because of a fond memory.  The memory of my boyhood, before my grandparents built their new 'brick' house (circa, 1959), and when they still lived on a small farm in the community of Pt. Enterprise outside of Mexia, Texas.  The old wood house was humble, but oh so fascinating to me.  It was heated by one large fireplace that opened on two sides - both into the parlor (or company) room and the main bedroom. The large kitchen, the center of all activity, featured a cookstove that never went out, which kept the backside of the house warm. On both the front and back of the house, under a grand, high-pitched roof, were two large porches. The back porch was 'screened in,' for summer sleeping - and the front for evening 'rocks' and watching the road.  The parlor (with it's fine furniture, crystal dishes and porcelain pretties) and main bedroom featured polished hardwood floors, but all other 'off'' rooms, including the kitchen, were covered by layers of linoleum - tacked down and worn through in places to reveal other layers from days gone by.  

Now my favorite memory from this old house is of cold or stormy nights - when we kids would be put to bed in Mama May and Papa's (pronounced Paw Paw) bedroom, out of the way.  There we were kept warm, and there we would enjoy their grand 'feather bed.'  Sometimes! (and oh those sometimes) after being tucked carefully in, and long after the rest of the house grew quite and the embers from the fire had died down, I'd awaken to a winter's rain peppering softly down on that grand, tin, roof.  Laying there, listening to that sound, I felt no fear, no threat, just a sense of being 'covered' - by love, safety, and forever. The storm - with its lightning and thunder -  brought no angst to me, just a joy of the covering that my body (and soul) felt inside.  I suspect it was the same covering as felt by King David as he hid in caves in the Judean hills. The same as that felt by Joshua, Peter and Paul as they lay in the prisons of their lives and times.  There's, too, was a covering greater than money, beyond circumstance, and one brought to them by God's love. 

So, yes!  A rainy day holds fond memories for me.  Memories of a feather bed, an old house, and a grand, tin roof.  But more, of the security that we can know in Christ as He covers us with His love.  

I am praying that your day - whether of rain or sun - will find you knowing the grace and mercy of Christ as your cover, as well... forever.   

Pastor Sam 

inspired by rain and Psalm 139:10-12