It’s been raining a lot lately. November to April is our wet season here. Or cyclone season, as we like to tell tourists who complain about the rain. Wet season. But still, the rain surprises us, skin smarting from the sun.

Rain can quickly turn to floodwaters here. It has, so many times during my fifty years. The memories like an ache, solid like the watermark on the wall by my window, where the water rose and rested for a day and night. Memories of what I couldn’t salvage. Memories of the pain in my mother’s eyes, reeling from the stench inside her mud-covered home.

And that is the strange and funny thing about hope, and faith, and yes, grace. As rain falls, we’re thankful for the respite from the heat and humidity. And at the same time, we’re hoping that it doesn’t rain too long, too hard. We hope it doesn’t wake up the sleeping river, or excite it to break its banks, flood the plain, fill our houses with its putrid, miry clay.

Faith, always faith, in the God who knows, we hope, what He is doing. We hope that He will hear our heartfelt cries to hold back the floodwaters. And if He opens the gates of the river, we hope that He keeps us safe, bring us through the waters like He has done so many times before.

And as always, time and time again, grace. His grace toward us, drawing us to Him. His grace ever-abiding, ever-growing in us. Gracious, patient, tender grace for us, encouraging us to be gracious to ourselves, for only then can we be free in Him.

Night falls and the rain has eased a little as I write. Perhaps it has finished for the day. Perhaps it has gone to gather itself anew, and return, a deluge. Only God knows.

Only God knows. No truer phrase has ever been birthed in living memory. Only God knows, and it is in Him, this gracious God who knows all, rests all my faith and my hope.

Prayer
“Father God, all merciful, gracious Lord. You are Holy and worthy to be praised! Thank You, for the rain, the sun, the days we’ve passed in this new month. O God, my hope rests in You! In Jesus’ name, I pray this. Amen!”

Writing Prompts
Gather your materials: Your Bible, either a physical copy or a digital one; your journal, diary or notebook; favourite pens, highlighters, etc.

Read through Lamentations 3:22-26, pray, and write down what the Holy Spirit shows you about what you’ve read.

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