Freedom Rained

Tonight we had an open time of worship. I joined about twenty minutes in, just as the sprinkles of rain started turning to heavier drops. I love rain. I love the feeling of it on my face and arms, and sound each drop makes as they land on the ground, a roof or someone’s windshield. Lately though, I’ve come to love it even more for the symbolism it brings with it. Cleansing and washing away the old. Hope of transformation and new life for each living thing it falls upon.

It took me a few minutes before I let myself step out of the pavilion (our class room with three of the four sides open and exposed to the outdoors) and into the pouring raining. As the rain kissed each cheek I felt this release in my spirit. I felt free to let go of what people were doing around me and and free to liberate the desire to sing and dance unabashedly. I think it important to inform the reader of the fact that my singing and dancing leave much to be desired, atleast by this world’s standards, which makes this an even more exciting.

At dinner a girl, whom I’ve never met, serving in the line tonight stopped me as I passed through and said, “I felt like when I saw you I was supposed to tell you that God enjoys the worship you bring him.” Funny, because I feel quite ridiculous most of the time, especially with each voice crackle and inability to sing in any sort of correct key. I guess that was all I needed to hear and be reminded of and God knew it. That it doesn’t matter how I look or sound. All that matters is the state of my heart and that I respond accordingly. So, hooray for tonight :) I responded accordingly and my soaking clothes bear witness to that.

After this freeing time of worship I stopped by a Kazak friend’s room. Before I even got to the room I could hear the sounds of Arabic music booming through her windows. I ran up the stairs and was greeted with a site that instantly brought me back to my days in Jordan. Shoes lined up outside the door, a table full of food and drinks, and a group of girls dancing with scarves wrapped around their hips. I spent the next hour “dancing,” or trying to do something of that manner, with a combination of people I knew and people I didn’t know. In a circle made up of seven of us, six nations were represented, Egypt, Samoa, Kazakhstan, Korea, Tajikistan and the US, and I loved every minute of it. At times I feel more at home among foreigners than I do other Americans. This was very well one of those times. No one minded if I could dance well or not, we just enjoyed the music and having that time together. We American's need more of this kind of thing in our lives....


**** I found the above picture online, and it is befittingly called “Blooming in the rain." I enjoy it quite a lot.