The Smell of Rain - Ariel Allison

- Listen to The Smell of Rain - by Ariel Allison


“Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants.”
Deuteronomy 32:2

It came last night while I was making dinner. The clouds settled low over this desert town as they bubbled with moisture. I threw open my kitchen windows and breathed in that unforgettable scent. The smell of rain. It is a life-giving fragrance, clean and laden with the promise of refreshing. It comes to us in the moments before and after an autumn shower, a lingering reminder that God can wash away anything unclean, even the dusty residue of a long summer.

Twenty four hours later, my windows are still open, the sky is still gray, and that precious rain still soaks into a lawn that not two days ago was charred from relentless heat. Northern Texas does not see rain often, and when those heavy drops descend upon our dry soil, it is received gladly. I am not yet weary of this gift of rain. Just as I am not weary of the gift God gives us in His Word. Deuteronomy 32:2 says:

“Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants.”

Sometimes my heart is like this desert where I live. Parched. In need of refreshing. This new life in me yearns for moisture to soften the hard soil around my tender roots and the new growth that pushes upward. I need the rain. I need God’s word to nourish me like showers on new grass and abundant rain on tender plants. I’ve seen what happens when a tender shoot, fresh from the soil, shrivels for lack of water.

May we absorb the word of Word of God this day like a thirsty plant that waits for rain. May our hearts swell with refreshing as we immerse ourselves in the truth we find on the pages of scripture.



Ariel Allison is a published author who lives in a small Texas town with her husband and three young sons. She is the co-author of Daddy Do You Love Me: a Daughter’s Journey of Faith and Restoration (New Leaf Press, 2006). Justin Case, the first of three children’s books will released by Harvest House Publishers in June 2009. She ponders on life as a mother of all boys at www.themoabclub.blogspot.com and on her thoughts as a redeemed dreamer at www.arielallison.blogspot.com. She and her husband are expecting their fourth son in December