Smell of Rain

A sudden gust of cool air startles me. Pausing, I tilt my head up and breath in through my nose. There it is. It’s nothing I can see, feel or hear, but it promises so much. It promises of coming things. Cooler temperatures, shade, playing in puddles . . . a bath for the earth. It's the smell of rain. Rain gets its smell from the things it touches. It is the smell of coolness, earth, vegetation and many other wondrous things of nature. The smell has been there all the time. It was just waiting for the moisture of rain to release it.

Rain has finally come to Tchad. The unbearable dryness and heat is being tempered with fairly regular storms that sweep across the savanna plains. I love seeing the clouds billow and tumble in the sky. You can see them miles away with their dark curtain of rain connecting them to earth. After the first gust of wind you often have less than a minute to run for shelter. There are seldom gentle showers, only storms. You get a few warning drops and then a big swimming pool in the sky bottoms out with a big "whoosh" of pelting rain! Many times I do not run for shelter but run out the door. To turn your face to the sky and have rivulets of rain running all over is a joy difficult to explain. The rain is my friend and the smell it sends ahead and leaves behind reminds me of my friend.

The Holy Spirit is likened to a rain shower. The Latter Rain is soon to fall. The wind is beginning to gust and I think I detect the smell of rain. Prepare to be refreshed.

"Showers of blessing
Showers of blessing we need
Mercy drops round us are falling
But for the showers we plead."