Surprising Treat from Heaven

It was a surprising treat for the day, a natural high, a miracle in the making that soothed my soul and warmed my heart – the 30-minute downpour on Sheikh Zayed road early this morning.

We left my house worrying about how to water Pablo’s windshield wiper’s water tank as it is already drained. Then, it started drizzling so I thought what a nice coincidence. After about 7 minutes on the road, it began raining like it’s does during the rainy days in the SouthEast without any warning. Then all vehicles started turning on their headlights and hazard signals. The road was hazy and white, windshield wiper working as hard as never before while we shrieked with delight as our vehicle get splattered with water by the passing cars.

I thought I could have brought my umbrella… the yellow one I’ve bought from Shanghai last June and has been keeping in my closet since then. I was a bit worried that the parking lot might have been full as of this time since there would be no guard to traffic the incoming vehicles to the parking area, plus the fact that we are already about 10 minutes late for work.

However, the unlikely thing happened. Passed the Mall of the Emirates, the rain was gone as quickly as it had come. The on-coming vehicles on the other side of the road didn’t show traces of being drenched nor being drizzled. There were even rays of sunlight escaping from an island of cloud as we emerge from the tunnel at the exit going to Al Barsha South. The parking lot in Emaar Business Park is half full and the guards are as usual, in their post, patiently inspecting all the entering vehicles. It looked as if someone had taken a great vat of water and poured it over Sheikh Zayed road between the 1st and 4th interchange at 8:30 this morning.

I love waking up in a beautiful sunny day just as I love it when the weather starts cooling down and gentle chilly breeze fills the air in the evenings. Yet, nothing can be compared to the experience of a rain after endless days under the desert sun. It is one moment that matters and that I’ve been longing for quite a long time. Each moment captured as the mizzle falls gingerly on my outstretched hands, the heavy beating of the raindrops as they rush falling on the car and finally to the ground, is a sight that made me feel both thrilled and fretful at the same time. Thrilled - for the feeling of freshness, of being washed from head to toe, hence, draining away all those that have marred the spirit and hardened the core. Fretful - that the streets might get flooded, the car would stop running and we would be stuck somewhere.

Still, I considered it a happening especially done for me by the One above despite the odds. There is this song with the lyrics, “sometimes He comes in the rain’ by Steven Curtis Chapman. So I thought, when everything in me seems to have crushed, when I feel like crying hard but the tears are just not there, when I want something so badly I would give up everything but still cannot have my way on it – then there would be no better time and no better way of assuring me that my God knows what I’m going through than by literally sending rain over to me. And He did… today.

As I sat in my office desk working on this, I could still see the picture of the rainy day on Sheikh Zayed road in my mind, and the joy I found on the rain falling on blue days. I believe all experiences come with lessons/messages never to be taken for granted, otherwise, a great deal of learning will be missed. As for me, I hope I could figure and sort out things in my life that seem to need some rearrangements.

Also, I hope there could be more morning downpours on Sheikh Zayed road to come.