Rich man’s rain

The tropical rain was pounding the pavement, flooding the side yard, pouring dense and loud. Riah laughed and said, “We call this a rich man’s rain.” Oh? I looked up curiously. She continued, “On days like this, the poor man cannot work. And when he doesn’t work, he doesn’t get paid. And when he doesn’t get paid, he doesn’t eat and his family doesn’t eat. That’s why we call it a rich man’s rain.”

We looked out at the downpour. “This is how it was when I was young. We were always poor. But now I tell my friends we must be glad for the rain. If it doesn’t rain, the fruit and vegetables don’t grow—and if they don’t grow, we won’t have anything to eat.”

A hard life

Once a week Riah came to our home and cleaned to make extra money. She was raised on an island not far from the city where I grew up and when we spoke Indonesian, our accents were similar. She’s had a hard life and very little education, yet she is a philosopher, passionately expounding on life—detailing three or four points in her speeches.

She told me about the tourists who used to come to her island when she was a child. “I followed them everywhere and they would give me food. Sometimes it was all I ate that day.”  She told me about going to bed hungry as she was growing up.  One day she looked out at the tall grasses in our side yard and said her adoptive mother used to cook those in water and feed the broth to her, to treat her stomachaches. I wonder now if it was a desperate mother’s attempt to fill empty bellies. Riah works hard, long hours at various jobs to make sure her child doesn’t follow tourists for handouts. To make sure her child doesn’t go to bed hungry.

His Word like rain

Today the rain falls hard again. I think about Riah and the rich man’s rain.  I read again the verses in Isaiah 55. The Lord compares His word to rain that falls from heaven and saturates the earth, making it germinate and sprout, providing seed to sow and food to eat. His word flows from His mouth like that —accomplishing what He pleases, prospering in what He sends it to do. Never returning to Him empty or void (Isaiah 55:9-11).

This is not a rich man’s rain, but a rain that falls on the righteous and the unrighteous, the wealthy and the poor, the slave and the free.  It’s a rich rain that accomplishes hope and purpose, that grows salvation and truth.

Let it rain

I won’t soon forget Riah or her struggles or “rich man’s rain.” And I will keep on speaking the living word of the One who is our only hope. I will keep on trusting this promise of seed that germinates and sprouts and accomplishes His purpose. Let it rain.