Apil Showers

“April showers bring May flowers’.  I’m sure that many times you have heard this rhyme and maybe you have found yourself repeating it.  The poem as we know it today originated in 1157 and was written by Thomas Tusser.  According to the New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, 3^rd edition, 2002, this statement refers to “some unpleasant occurrence about better things.”

In the Bible, the word “showers” is used 15 times in 14 different verses, all in the Old Testament.  With the exception of one verse, all of the references point to something that is very positive.  For example:

·       Showers are anticipated.  “They waited for me as for showers and drank in my words as the spring rain” (Job 29:23).

·       Showers come in season.  “I will bless them and the places surrounding my hill.  I will send down showers in season.” (Ezekiel 34:26a).

·       Showers can be referred to as more than just bleakness and rain but that which is very positive.  “There will be showers of blessing” (Ezekiel 34:26b).

·       Showers become refreshing dew on the grass.  “Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plant” (Deuteronomy 32:2).

·       Showers water the earth.  “He will be like rain falling on a mown field, like showers watering the earth” (Psalm 72:6).

·       Showers are referred to as abundant showers.  “The clouds pour down their moisture and abundant showers fall on mankind” (Job 36:28).

One thing about showers that seems to jump off the page is that we should use showers as a reminder to put our hope in the Lord.  Listen to this: “Do any of the worthless idols of the nations bring rain?  Do skies themselves send down showers?  No, it is you, O Lord our God.  Therefore our hope is in you, for you are the one who does all this” (Jeremiah 14:22).  As you begin to enjoy everything the spring and summertime have to offer – the showers that God sends (along with flowers) are to remind you of His abundant blessing in your life.  Let showers be a reminder to place your hope in God.