Remembering

I'm listening to the rain falling all around my quiet house. I woke up several times last night and heard it, sometimes a gentle patter on the ground, other times a loud clatter against our windows. I remember missing the rain a lot when I lived in Australia. I wanted to see a thunder storm, to remember what it was like to have pouring rain and booming thunder and blinding lightning.

As people keep reminding me, we need this rain! After such a dry summer last year, this is a welcome blessing to the beginning of Spring. There is also something peaceful about it, especially from the indoor perspective of my warm little house. And it makes me think, too, of how God refreshes our dry souls when we need it.

I was reading Psalm 143 yesterday. There are so many beautiful words of praise, prayer, and promise.

"I remember the days of old;
    I meditate on all that you have done;
    I ponder the work of your hands.
⁶ I stretch out my hands to you;
    my soul thirsts for you like a parched land."
[verses 5-6]

One of the ways God gives us refreshment for our souls is through remembering what He has done in the past--ways He has encouraged us, helped us, given us faith and hope, turned us from sin or despair. It's so easy to go from day to day, thinking of life as "normal" or even "mundane." But how rich it becomes when we look from the perspective of the past, seeing how God has taught us and grown us and directed us to bring us to this point. 

So, think a little bit. Remember. And be refreshed in your soul.