Having just spent hours shopping in the local supermarket, Stephanie and her mum Barbara were more than a little eager to head back home.  Stephanie, who had just turned seven possessed a face full of the innocence that only child-hood can give you, and didn't seem all that bothered either to find that it was raining from high heaven when they both got out outside. 

Sadly though, her mum Barbara did not seem quite as enthusiastic. She was not alone in that sense, as most of the other people gathered under the supermarket awning were feeling annoyed, jaded and irritable having had their hurried day put on hold as it were - until the rain decided to let up somewhat.  Something it showed no imminent signs of doing.

Imagine the look of surprise on all of their faces then when they heard Stephanie telling her mum to run through the rain.  Smiling with the deepest sincerity as she did so.  "What?" asked her mum in shocked disbelief.  "Let's run through the rain mum." She repeated again before adding: "It'll be fun!" 

Everyone turned to look at how Barbra would respond to the folly of her daughter's foolish request. Knowing full well there was simply no way she was ever going to run in such a torrential downpour of rain.

Unsurprisingly, Barbara replied: "No sweetheart, let's wait until the rain dies down first.  We don't want to get soaked now, do we?"  But Stephanie was having none of it.  "Come on mum, it'll be fun." She repeated.  You said only this morning that God can get us through anything when you were worried about all your bills this morning; and daddy being sick and out of work. 

Barbara smiled as she thought back to their conversation at breakfast earlier that morning, as the stunned crowd gathered around them just looked on in silence. Waiting knowingly for what would happen next, the uncontrollable tears of a child being rebuked for being so silly and naïve.

Barbara, being the mum and the woman that she was, knew instinctively what it was like to lose trust in the world and the people around you.  Especially at a time when it most needed to be nurtured and cared for.

So, lovingly, she reached down for Stephanie's little fingers and grasped them tightly.  "Okay sweetheart, let's run in the rain!"  She said with the biggest smile she could muster.  "After all, it's only water not acid." and with that they both ran off as happy as two peas in a pod.

Most of the people that had witnessed the sight before their eyes smiled, lifted their bags over their heads and ran off after them.  Their hearts and faces filled with laughter and immense joy as they did so.  Sure they got thoroughly soaked, but more than a few danced in the puddles, or skipped and hopped around as if filled with freedom, sudden promise and the knowledge that no matter what, God truly WILL see us through. 

After all, it WAS only water!  A fact too many of us tend to forget.  So not matter what circumstances, problems or worries life throws our way, we should never forget to make time to run in the rain.

© Charles Anthony McFaulds