This is a wonderful incident observed by a
young man who works for
CenturyTel in Monroe, Louisiana, while shopping
at Walmart one day.
...she must have been six years old, this
beautiful, brown-haired,
freckle-faced image of innocence. Her Mom
looked like someone from the
Waltons or a moment captured by Norman
Rockwell. Not that she was
old-fashioned. Her brown hair was ear-length
with enough curl to appear
natural. She had on a pair of tan shorts and a
light blue knit shirt. Her
sneakers were white with a blue trim. She
looked like a Mom.
It was pouring rain outside...the kind of rain
that gushes over the tops
of rain gutters, so much in a hurry to hit the
earth it has no time to
flow down the spout. Drains in the nearby
parking lot were filled to
capacity, and some were blocked so that huge
puddles formed around parked
cars.
We all stood there under the awning and just
inside the door of the
Walmart. We waited, some patiently, others
irritated because the downpour
had messed up their hurried day.
I am always mesmerized by rainfall. I get lost
in the sound and sight of
the heavens washing away the dirt and dust of
the world. Memories of
running, splashing so carefree as a child come
pouring in as a welcome
reprieve from the worries of my day.
Her voice was so sweet as it broke the
hypnotic trance in which we were
all caught. "Mom, let's run through the rain,"
she said.
"What?" Mom asked.
"Let's run through the rain!" she repeated.
"No, honey. We'll wait until it slows down a
bit," Mom replied.
The child waited another minute and repeated
her statement. "Mom, let's
run through the rain."
"We'll get soaked if we do," Mom said.
"No, we won't, Mom. That's not what you said
this morning," the young
girl said as she tugged at her mom's arm.
"This morning? When did I say we could run
through the rain and not get
wet?"
"Don't you remember? When you were talking to
Daddy about his cancer, you
said, 'If God can get us through this, He can
get us through anything!'"
The entire crowd stopped dead silent. You
couldn't hear anything but the
rain. We all stood silently. No one came or
left in the next few minutes.
The mom paused and thought for a moment about
what she would say.
Now, some would laugh it off and scold her for
being silly. Some might
even ignore what was said. But this was a
moment of affirmation in
young girl's life, a time when innocent trust
can be nurtured so that it
will bloom into faith.
"Honey, you are absolutely right. Let's run
through the rain. If God
let's us get wet, well maybe we just needed
washing," the mother said.
Then off they ran. We all stood watching,
smiling and laughing as they
darted past the cars and yes ... through the
puddles. They held their
shopping bags over their heads just in case. Of
course, they got soaked.
But they were followed by a few believers who
screamed and laughed like
children all the way to their cars, perhaps
inspired by their faith and
trust.
I want to believe that somewhere down the road
in life this mom will find
herself reflecting back on moments they spent
together, captured like
pictures in the scrapbook of her cherished
memories. Maybe when she
watches proudly as her daughter graduates. Or
as her husband walks their
daughter down the aisle on her wedding day. She
will laugh again. Her
heart will beat a little faster. Her smile will
tell the world they love
each other. But only two people will share that
precious moment when they
ran through the rain believing that God would
get them through.
And yes, I did. I ran. I got wet. I needed
washing. I hope you will also
make time to run through the rain.
...Author unknown |
