“It's raining! It's pouring! The old man is snoring,

He went to bed, and he bumped his head,

and he couldn't get up in the morning!”

The last few days it has been raining. When I was a child we used to sing the above chant. It is said to have originated in England which is quite possible since it is a country that has a lot of rain. When I began to think about the words, I realized how strange they were! But possibly those childhood chants were coined to take the minds off the weather and even make fun of it.

In recent weeks, I have enjoyed looking outside and saying, “Oh, we have another gorgeous day of sunshine!” But not today, now there is rain, and I have decided to stay inside! Usually gray, rainy days like this seem to lay heavy on my heart.
 Not so today, for I seem to be enjoying the sound of the raindrops falling on the roof.

Earlier I had gotten my little harp out because a song kept going through my mind. It was “There is Sunshine in My Soul Today!”
So I enjoyed playing it. It just would not leave.

Suddenly, I realized that I've been asking the Lord repeatedly what I should write about this week. 'Hum, could He have put this song in my head?” I wondered. So I've decided to write:

“There is sunshine in my soul today

More glorious and bright

Than glows in any earthly sky,

For Jesus is my Light.

Refrain:

O there's sunshine, blessed sunshine,

when the peaceful, happy moments roll;

When Jesus shows His smiling face,

There is sunshine in the soul.

• Elisa Hewitt (1887)

Evidently Elisa had suffered a severe back injury and was in a cast for six months. Finally she was able to take a simple walk in the park. The joy she felt at her recovery prompted her to write those words, and they have been an encouragment to many people ever since.

The words brought to mind the parable that Jesus told about that wonderful day in the future when,

“Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”

Matthew 13:43

Ah, I thought, how wonderful it would be if I could right now 'shine forth' because of having the Son of God shining from within me. Does not the Bible say that I am to walk as a child of the light (Eph.5:8)?

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