The Gift of this Gray Day

Rain slips through the forest 
while birch leaves whisper 
and earth drinks in sustenance. 
God made this day too! 
Gray skies absorb the sunshine 
to share mild light 
with the calm white lake. 

The rusty leaf carpet
on the forest floor
sips blessing as it dies
and younger leaves yellow
then swirl gracefully down
like silent charms
to nest and rest in peace.

The Father plans release:
preparation for hibernation
as winter looms ahead.
I am a sponge, too, 
soaking in his benediction
as he washes me clean,
made ready for what’s next.

Every year we try to reserve part of October for rest in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, in the “Chalet Shalom” that my parents built as their retirement home. It is now the legacy they left their descendants. Here we are, now. I sit at an ancient wooden desk in the Pine Room, looking out on forest and Piatt Lake. We just had two days of glorious sunshine. But this morning has instead been drenched with light rain.

The flat gray sky reminds me of the day one of my son’s best buddies, Abou Coulibaly, was visiting me at the translation office in Ferkessédougou, Côte d’Ivoire. I walked him to the door and he fixed his eyes on the sky. “Ce jour est béni ! Le ciel est tout gris !” In English I would say: “It’s a beautiful day! The sky is all gray!”

Would we be likely to say that in American culture? No! We tend to prefer sunshine. Remember that chorus we used to sing:

 “There is sunshine in my soul today,
More glorious and bright
Than glows in any earthly sky,
For Jesus is my light. . .  (E. E. Hewitt, 1887)

While doing Bible translation among the Nyarafolo people, I found out that a literal translation of that song would communicate something totally different. There in the tropics, the sun beats you up!

I was checking a draft of Mat 5. 45, which says in English: , ^“so that you may be like your Father in heaven, since he causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Matt. 5:45 NET) The mother-tongue translator had used a phrase that said: “He causes the sun to shine on the evil and the good.” Those listening to the verse were startled, because to them that wordinig meant he causes punishment to fall on the evil and the good, indiscriminately. He beats them up! We had to change the wording to what was literally in the text: “He causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good.” That was understandable: we all want light to break through!

A few months later at a workshop that brought together multiple translation teams, I was asked to share some of the key issues our team had been addressing. So I brought up this one and threw out an introductory question:  “If I were to tell you that I had sunshine in my soul today, what would that mean to you?”

There was confused silence for a moment. Then a man from a neighboring country raised his hand and said: “You’ve got problems, Madame!”

Well, sunshine indicates hardship there, whereas Michiganders get tired of their gray days and long for sunshine!

But here I sit in the cool Michigan autumn, drinking in the peace of quiet rainfall and a haze of gray. I contemplate the way my Lord Yahweh brings the earth its changing seasons and how he has equiped different climates with just the right vegetation—like palm trees and baobabs in West Africa, birches and pines here in northern Michigan. And when the rains come at the right time for each variety of vegetation, they are indeed a blessing.

Let us know, let us strive to know Yahweh; that he will come is as certain as the dawn. He will come to us like a shower, like the rain of springtime to the earth. (Hos. 6:3 NJB)

I love this comparison! When we seek to know Yahweh we can count on him showing up in our lives to shower us with the blessing of nurture. Just as dawn brings sunlight in some form every day, he is right on time, right when we open up to him. And just as the seasonal rains prepare the earth for what comes next, whether it is time for the crop to grow or the dying leaves to fertilized the soil, we can count on him. He comes with what we need, preparing us.

In this space, I need the dissipation of stress and the sense of His presence, renewing me. I am being made ready for whatever is ahead—probably November, which looks like it will be excruciatingly busy. So I rest in this gift. May you also find renewal in the next gray day God sends your way!