Lovely rainy day!

Today it rained and rained and rained. We have had a lot of rain lately. We're in the south of England, but in the north there has been some dangerous flooding with all the rain, and still it continues. Some days there is sunshine with the showers, and it's windy and cold with it too, but the rain is pretty consistent.

I am so thankful for rain. Today I watched it fall from the window and had one of those moments of surreal clarity. How amazing it suddenly seemed, to see water falling out of the sky and making big pools and streams on the ground! Like I had never really seen it before. I was just in awe that God sends water down to earth from the sky, and that the plants and living things grow and thrive because of it.

I thought about parts of western Africa which are right now experiencing severe drought. A charity letter that came the other week said that most children aged under six in those parts have NEVER seen rain falling before. That just stopped me right in my tracks. I just think, how can we - how DARE we?! - moan and complain about a little rain? I mean, Cumbria has reason to be upset about the rain and there has been loss of life in the floods, but I mean more in terms of general daily British whining and complaining about rainy weather. In light of the African crisis, it just sickens me to hear people complaining! I mean, really, it's nothing but a minor inconvenience or mood-depressant, surely? Not actually a big deal! We are BLESSED beyond measure - we need water to survive, and we literally have it falling out of the sky in our country! The landscape in parts of west Africa is scattered with dead animal carcasses. Nothing will grow, and no livestock can survive, so no food is available for people or animals, and everyone is starving. All for lack of RAIN.

Today, I rejoice in the rich and luxurious blessing of heavy rainfall, and I pray that God will release it over Africa again. Without intending to, Benjamin and I slept in so ridiculously late this morning that Neil got the boys ready for church without waking us, and went to church without us. When we got up, we enjoyed a quiet house, and some beautiful worship music. I flung open the windows, even with the chilly air, to bask in the beauty of the rain, with Benjamin in my arms. After watching it for a while, I realised that I really wanted to photograph it. The things that I feel really passionate about photographing are elements of nature, and babies and children. I have always loved photographing a pile of leaves, or a sunset (endless endless badly-turned-out photos of these from my teens and 20s, haha!), or a tree in its autumn colours. Today, the idea of trying to capture just RAIN gave me such a buzz! I took some photos, and then Benjamin went for a nap. Once he was asleep I was able to play with my camera a little more. I still know very little about taking photographs with my new(ish!) camera, but I certainly enjoyed trying various things to get the images I wanted. I didn't get quite what I wanted for all the different things I saw (maybe this should be at my photography blog?!), but I had fun! :)

Rainy morning



Benjamin watching the rain from my arms



Beautiful raindrops on my open window





The sun comes out!





And the rain continues...



How good are God's gifts to us, and how beautiful His creation is!





I love the rain! :)