Rain

I never liked the rain until I walked through it with you.
That was the first line in a song on the radio on my way home in the rain today. I liked it.

It reminded me of the beginning of Blue Like Jazz: "I never liked jazz music because jazz music doesn't resolve. But I was outside the Bagdad Theater in Portland one night when I saw a man playing the saxophone. I stood there for fifteen minutes, and he never opened his eyes. After that I liked jazz music. Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself. It is as if they are showing you the way."

And sometimes you need to share an experience with someone before you can love it. Maybe the substance of life is the relationships that give meaning to the experiences. And maybe our company reeems the situations that would otherwise be less than ideal.

I never liked the rain until I walked through it with you.

Jesus, be near. Help me to see that you walk in the rain with me, that I might like the rain because of your presence.

Credits: Clint Black, "Like the Rain"; Donald Miller, "Blue Like Jazz," ix