Rain Or Shine

"That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?" (Matthew 5:45-47). There are times when God causes the Sunshine of His love and His heavenly blessings to stream down upon us because we have been choosing the right and obtaining His favor by doing His will. In short, sometimes He blesses us because we have been obedient. And sometimes when we have been rebellious and disobeyed God, He sends down the rain of His displeasure upon us as a consequence of our sinful disobedience. But not every sunny day is a direct result of our righteousness, nor is every rainy day a punishment for our wickedness. Sometimes God blesses us with a sunny day even when we're being horrible because despite our efforts to halt His work, He still loves us. And sometimes we are doing everything right and God hits us with a storm, not because He is not mindful of our sacrifices and obedience, but because we have lessons yet to learn in the midst of adversity, and He loves us too much to ever think of withholding these opportunities for growth and development. God loves and blesses all of His children - both the evil and the good. And God loves and puts under trial all of His children - both the just and the unjust. We have to learn to follow His example. It is easy to love and to serve our brothers and sisters when the sun is shining and we are in a good mood and perhaps they just did something nice for us so of course while we are feeling grateful and friendly we have no trouble doing something nice for them. But when it's raining and they've just made us incredibly angry or disappointed or frustrated, it is very hard to love and to serve them then. I can't imagine how our Heavenly Father has the capacity to send sunshine so often when all of us disappoint and rebel against Him so very, very often. But I think part of the secret is that when we are truly and selflessly loving our neighbor in the same way that our Heavenly Father loves them, that love flows through us and into them and it transforms both us as the conduit and our neighbor as the recipient. We can be in the middle of a torrential downpour, there can be so much animosity, so much history of broken trust and retaliation upon retaliation, but because we are allowing the love of God to pour through us, that love brings its own sunshine that radiates out and pushes back the rain. When we are swallowed up by God's love it is always shining.