Sitting with their windows open, our friend could hear the rain drops landing on the willow tree. If you didn’t focus, it was white noise, but when they tuned-in to those falling drops, they could hear the splashes, crashes, and drips of the many drops.

Their thoughts turned to how God works in their life. Honestly, they want it to be a torrent. A real gusher – a big God, making big splashes, accomplishing big things all in an instant. And truthfully, we want that too: big impact, fast-moving, far-reaching actions with God.

But this doesn’t seem to be the case. He chooses to work like rain trickling through the willow tree – slowly, steadily, sporadically, thoroughly, and often unpredictably. Those rain drops don’t move in a uniform manner or come off the tree in a metered way. The lack of predictable cadence or rhythm to those unknowable drops frustrates us. It’s a collective sound from a distance, but up close it’s an unfathomable scramble of this raindrop and that one. Each drop is ineffectual, but together they create breeze, bring water, soak, spray, and change everything they touch.

Looking back, we see how from a distance our life has been a uniformed journey with God – like the white noise of the rain. We’ve endeavoured to be obedient to the best of our abilities – knowing what we know, with what we have, and where we are, we have tried to make the best decision. But when you get closer and start to see the working of each raindrop, you can see the splashes, points of divergence, and unexpected trails run by these streams. Sometimes the benefits and the costs have not been what we expected.

The pitter patter of the rain doesn’t make it any less effectual. The rain goes where it pleases. Where we are now is not where we expected (we thought we would always be in Slavic Europe). What we do now is not what first brought us to Thailand. It’s the unknowable flow of God’s plans for us. Not a torrent. Not a gush. A steady rainfall with unexpected results. While we still dream of geysers, we’re grateful for the raindrops and the willow trees.