Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the skies rain down righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation may spring up, and let it cause righteousness to sprout up also   Isaiah 45:8

We're coming off of several days of rain and today have a beautifully sunny day, but I have been pondering about "raining down righteousness"  First, the rain from heaven comes to quench our own souls, but then, I think we too have a call to rain down righteousness.

The most important factor needed for a rainstorm is "lift".  Ground air, heat, and humidity have to rise.  As the earthy air collides with the higher atmosphere a storm is formed and rain pours down.

 It's easy to think of righteousness as "right-ness."  That we should rain down with the right way to do things, with reckoning or judgment.  Someone else defines righteousness as leading a life that is pleasing to God. When we lead lives that are pleasing to God, the natural outflow of that are things that soothe and heal our parched world.

As we raise prayers to God, he allows for our lives to be poured out, a rain of righteousness.

Our collisions with heaven burst forth into nourishment for the world, water for thirsty hearts, relief for cracking environments, and hope for seeds abandoned.  

"let the earth open, that salvation

may spring up" 

 As rain falls on dry ground, at first it does little, it is soaked up, never to be seen again.  Sometimes when the ground is really dry, the rain runs off quickly, not even having a chance to soak in.  But after prolonged rain, the ground softens, receives the water and it soaks in deep.  Sometimes it takes a lot of rain to soften ground, to prepare it to yield fruit.  That's why we're not supposed to sprinkle or drip, but rain down with the outflow of a life pleasing to God, that people can't help but be touched by it, soaked by it really, and changed by it.  It's then that the landscape is changed, heartscapes are changed, softened, to allow for salvation to spring up.

What does it mean in our daily lives to rain down that kind of love that allows for salvation to naturally spring up in the places we go and the lives we touch?  Probably first needs a lot of prayer rising, a lot of holy collision, maybe holy collusion, to bring that kind of rain.