A Little Rain Must Fall

“April showers bring May flowers” is an old saying that I remember hearing when I was growing up. Then I did not think much about what that saying meant but now that I am older, I realize that there is a lot of truth to that statement. The first is simple in that when the Spring rains come so do the flowers, and unfortunately the grass starts growing as well, and if you like mowing grass kudos to you. The second is a little more complex; a little deeper than meets the eye.

You see, rain oftentimes is a metaphor for something that has gone bad. Think of the
saying, “when it rains it pours.” That is not literal in any way because that presupposes that
there is already something bad happening (i.e., the rain) and usually when something already bad
is happening more terrible things just seem to pile on top of sad things that are already
happening. Just think of what it would be like to have a flat tire in the pouring down rain on a
busy interstate. Not only will you get wet, but you are going to end up soaked when a car drives
by and inadvertently splashes you with water. So, rain in this context is a dreadful thing.

What are the April showers then? Was the author implying that those showers were in
fact some bad things, some hard trials, perhaps even some difficulties that we just wish we didn’t
have to go through, and yet once we do and arrive on the other side, we get to experience the joy,
peace, and blessings that are represented by flowers? If you thought that when you first started
reading this blog, then you were exactly right. The truth is that many do not really think about
that, but that does not mean that we don’t have those experiences, those down in the valley
moments when we really wish that we were on the mountain top. But as I said in a recent sermon
all our life is that. We are either down in the valley of despair (because of something that we are
facing) and through God’s grace we begin to ascend the mountain. And if we stay faithful, stay obedient to His leading then we soon hit that oh so blessed mountaintop! I can just hear someone in the background now saying “Amen” at my church. The problem is that once we are there we tend to forget, and we end up going back down the other side to the valley floor below to begin the process all over again and oh what a vicious cycle that can be.

But there is hope and hope is a good thing. Here at Mt. Holly Baptist Church, we want
you to experience the hope that you can have in Jesus and Jesus alone and the first step on that
journey can be made down something called the Romans Road. (Romans 3:10, 3:23, 5:12, 6:23,
5:8, 10:9-11, and 10:13) In these verses we see that when we place our faith in Jesus as our Lord
and Savior. When we admit that we are a sinner in need of a Savior and ask Jesus to become both
our Lord and Master, then according to the Bible we are now justified in the eyes of God.
(Romans 3:28, Gal. 2:16) What that means is that Jesus in dying on the Cross has paid the price
for our sins and has redeemed us. And in redeeming us God places his Son’s righteousness on us
because we have none ourselves. So, in the eyes of God, He only sees Christ’s righteousness and
not our own because whatever righteousness’ that we might have had before are nothing but
filthy rags, not even worth talking about.

So, what does this have to do with April showers and May flowers? It has everything to
do with it because in Jesus we are positionally already on the mountain top because of our
justification and no one or no thing can get us down. Experientially we still face trials and
tribulations daily and what that means is that we being justified by God, our telos or end is now
in Heaven, yet we still sin. This is where sanctification comes in, which is a big word we do not
hear much anymore which means we are now set apart from the world. This sanctification is a
present and ongoing reality that our sin nature fights against. This means that because of our
perversive sin nature not only are we positionally sanctified (set apart once) but we must also be experientially sanctified which means that God “sanctifies” us every day to make us holy. Our end is in Heaven and yet God in his goodness is still working on us In short, God uses what we go through, sometimes daily, to make us more like His Son because not only is Heaven our future home, but our new purpose in life, and in eternity is to be holy as Jesus is holy. In short, we must experience the rain to get to the flowers.

April showers bring May flowers!