Dropping Our Umbrellas

We have had lots of rain here in Hurricane. These days I take my walks between the showers! On one of these recent walks, I was delighted to see a little pink umbrella cast aside under a tree. I could picture a young girl freely abandoning her umbrella and joyfully dancing in the rain. The inverted umbrella had collected the rain water, thus providing a refreshing bath for birds and a watering hole for animals. My soul was uplifted by the simple blessings found in that scene.

God showers blessing after blessing upon us. But I wonder how often we huddle under our umbrellas and keep moving forward, bent on reaching our destinations with our images unscathed and our dignity intact, all the while remaining quite unaware of what we are missing.

We cling to our umbrellas of security and miss the blessings of generosity. We hold high our umbrellas of pride and miss the blessings of humility. We huddle under our umbrellas of protection and miss the blessings of adventure.  We hunker under the umbrellas of self-importance and miss the blessings of community. We hurriedly grab the umbrellas of convenience and miss the blessings of possibility. We hide under the umbrellas of image, and miss the blessings of authenticity. We shudder under umbrellas of regret and miss the blessings of forgiveness. We shelter under our umbrellas of self-reliance and miss the blessings of our desperate need for God. We miss out on so many gracious gifts because we are afraid to let go and abandon ourselves to them.

In those moments when we can find the courage and the faith to drop our chosen umbrellas, we can discover so many riches in the raindrops. We receive the sheer bliss of abandoning ourselves to God’s generously flowing love. We open ourselves to receive the perfect gifts God chooses for us, instead of cautiously choosing what we think we need. We are refreshed and renewed by the simple delight of dancing in the raindrops of God’s infinite goodness.

We also find that our inverted umbrellas will gather and hold these same gifts for others to partake and enjoy. There are enough blessings to share with everyone. Our discarded umbrellas of protection will instead become overflowing receptacles of these same bountiful gifts of God- for all who wish to join us in the dance.