Costa, Sierra y Selva

The rain falls on the mighty and the weak, the just and the unjust. But it does not fall on Trujillo. Or at least that’s what I thought. But today it is raining. And if I really want to believe it, and I do, it’s not just the tiniest drizzle we sometimes see. It looks like a real rain, a steady series of slender gray lines connecting the dry, dry earth with the bounteous heaven. It is the third time in ten days that it has rained in Trujillo. The first time I experienced only through hearsay. Two friends reported to me that it had rained on them as they walked home late at night. I was skeptical. I did not believe in rain. But then, last Sunday while walking to church in the evening, I felt the cold dampness of rain drops on my face and my shoulders and could see the darkening of the fabric on my shirt as it absorbed the water. It was a Sunday rain, which, far from being a depressant, comes as a delight. It is the most oppropriate thing for it to rain on the Sabbath, isn’t it? How better does God express His love for this His world? Now, Sunday again, it is raining. I can see the tiles in the courtyard glisten and mirror the clouds. The ficus tree beside the empty pool is trembling beneath the rain. You can tell where the drops land by the way the leaves shiver.

There is a cleanliness that only comes from a rain. Rain washes away so many things, doesn’t it? It washes away the dirt not only from yesterday, but from all the days since the last rain. It sends the filth and garbage down, down, and away into the hidden depths. Of course, these Trujillo rains could never be that strong. For some reason, God ordained that as the clouds travelled over this continent they would be obliged to dump their burden of crystal droplets on the back of the Andes mountains. By the time those South American clouds make it to our town, they are sad and empty. For some reason God ordained that it would not rain in Trujillo, or at least hardly ever. But He has also shown us just how wonderful He is as a provider. He sends the water to us in other ways, through underground rivers and through the canals and streams that lead down from the mountains. He has made the soil fertile and good. We can grow so many things. And when it does rain, we are just the more thankful for it.

But how frustrating it is that I lack so much the faith to believe in God’s goodness. I need a sign, every once in a while, a small reminder of His goodness. In Spanish we call goodness bondad. That reminds me of bountiful. God is not only good, but He is a bountiful provider. He quenches the thirst in my soul and He quenches the thirst in the ground. Praised be the name of the Lord.