Tuesday With Teri

          It’s raining today, and it seems so very right.  Some days are just meant for rain.  It is gray, chilly and a very dreary sort of day.  It’s the kind of day that makes it easy to work because there are no outdoor activities tempting you away.  It’s the kind of day that seems to demand you drink hot tea, even if you’re not a tea drinker.  It’s the kind of day that compels one to spend a few minutes staring out the window in quiet contemplation.  Maybe it was a car window, maybe an office window or the window in your home, but admit it, you stared at the rain drizzled glass separating you from the outside world. 

          I was in the car with my son, who was driving me to get my car from the shop.   As we waited at a traffic light I found myself focusing on the numerous raindrops littering my car door window.  I was soon transported back in time.

          I remember staring out the window from the back seat of the car as a little girl.  I especially loved it when it rained.  The little droplets would pile up across the window like transparent polka dots on a crystal sky.  “Back in the day”, as they say, we didn’t have DVD players or IPODs in our cars so I would entertain myself with the raindrops on the window.

            I liked to look at the different sizes and would often count them to help pass time.  My favorite activity though, was to watch them race!  Yep, maybe you’ve never noticed, but raindrops race down windows and across car windows.  When the air passed  the car window it would cause each sticky drop of rain to jiggle in anticipation of the race.  I would pick two or three such “jiggling” drops and wait for them to move.  Eventually each would begin to crawl across the window.  I would watch as the littlest one might slide out of the race or be pulled to the air.  The thin ones would stretch out into slithering worms pushing past other drops.  The best, and usually the winners of my imaginary races, were always the thick miniature puddles that adhered to the farthest edge of the window.

          As the raindrop began to slide across the window it would roll into other drops.  Each time it bumped into another dollop of rain it would swallow it up.  With each gulp the droplet would quicken its pace, as it gained in size and momentum.  Eventually this monster of a raindrop would soak up an entire path of droplets and end in a small river at the base of the window edge.

          Today as I caught myself watching the raindrops jiggle on the car window, I thought of how much we are like these drops….

          Sometimes we are barely holding on to the surface as life blows past us like wind on a car window.  The passing of time propels us forward.  As we journey some of us let go and allow ourselves to be taken out of the race.  Sometimes in our rush to finish we spread ourselves too thin.  We weave in and out of life’s journey never growing, never gaining, and ultimately find we are lonely and tired.  But sometimes we find along our path others who join us in our efforts, people who add to our lives and make us better.  Sure, the journey may seem long at times, but the extra passage affords more opportunity to gain strength, wisdom, understanding and grace each time we “bump” into others.

“Let us hold fast to the  confession of our hope without wavering…let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our assembling together…encouraging one another all the more..” Hebrews 10:23-25