Showers of Blessings
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“Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” I Corinthians 13:7-8
We celebrated my great niece’s wedding this weekend. She asked me to participate in the wedding service, and I was honored to do so since I had officiated in the wedding of her parents. I shared Scriptures, prayed a blessing over their marriage, and then shared some words of wisdom about relationships -
Remember these important aspects of a relationship. Communication is central. Share your day, your feelings, your frustrations, your dreams and your goals. Share. Share. Share. Have a foundation for your personal life and your marriage. Keep yourselves grounded in your faith in God, your values, your family, and your belief in each other. Don’t assume. Share and talk through and don’t assume the other one understands it or will see it the same as you. Compromise. Share how you feel and listen to the other person. Be each other’s encourager. Be united and build up each other. See the good in one another and share it. Enjoy life and take adventures. Live, don’t just exist. Life is more than work. Love. Love. Love.
The ceremony was beautiful and now complete, and we were sharing the meal. Then God showered the dry earth with a rain shower and then a rainbow right over the venue. I told my niece that God was showering his love and blessing upon her marriage.
As I sat in the reception hall with my brothers and extended family, I was reflective. I was sitting in the little town where my mom went to High School. I drove by the school on my way to the wedding. Just a few miles down the road was where my mom grew up and went to Church. God had showered his blessings on me by giving me such a special mom who loved me and loved Jesus and shared that love with others. At the reception was a picture of my mom and dad. They are the foundation for my siblings and their families.
I remember the love my mom and dad had for one another. They were married almost 52 years when my dad died. They worked together on the farm, provided for their children, raised their family in the church, and were grounded in their love for Jesus. I remember hearing them read devotions together and pray together. They laughed, they cried, they disagreed, they enjoyed adventures, and they lived together in love. No relationship is perfect, but my parents allowed God to shower blessings upon their lives and marriage.
I give thanks to God for allowing me to experience the blessings of marriage and love. The love God gives to us to share with others remains in our hearts forever. Love never dies. Love just takes a different form.
Sometimes the showers do not feel like blessings. My niece did not see the showers at her reception as a blessing at first because people were to be outside for the dancing and fun. It was just delayed for a while. It is the same for all of us, when something happens unexpectedly or not as we had hoped or planned, we do not see God’s hand or blessing immediately. It takes time to heal and ponder and reflect. It is remembering that God brings good – His blessings – out of the heartache and bad. It takes time to see it because we only see and feel the hurt and pain. This is grief. As we give ourselves time to heal from the loss, the gentle shower of God’s love helps us see the good coming out of what we just went through. It does not mean that what happened was good, it just means that good came out of what happened.
God blesses us each day with the gift of life and breath. God blesses us with His love that is always in our hearts. God blesses us with grace and forgiveness through His Son, Jesus. God blesses us with His presence through the Holy Spirit. God blesses us with relationships – people who walk with us in love and encourage us when we struggle and just love us for who we are.
God has showered blessings upon our dry earth and dry lives. We all go through dry times and hard times in life where our focus is on the pain and suffering and brokenness of life. God is still present. God is still God. We just need to trust when we do not understand. God will always love you. Love never dies, and love never ends.
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