by Donald Hancock

Created on: March 27, 2010

When it rains on your parade

April is a time when we expect some additional rain to fall, and it is sometimes an inconvenience.

Barbara Streisand sings a song called “Don't Rain On My Parade”. The idea is that she has her life all lined up the way she wants it and she doesn't want anybody or anything to cloud up and rain on her plans.

All of us have our own parade and there are a lot of things that can cause rain, like financial problems, career problems and, especially, health problems. Our dentist, who served us well for over thirty years before he retired, used to look into my mouth at the teeth he had filled, replaced, and propped up, and he would say, “your mouth is an accident waiting to happen”. I suppose that many of our doctors look at our bodies, especially those of us older folks, and say the same thing - “This is an accident waiting to happen!” There are many things that can rain on our parade at any particular moment.

But Al Jolson, a singer in the 30's and 40's, had a song that took a very positive approach to such rain. It went like this:

“Life is not a highway strewn with flowers, Still it holds a goodly share of bliss. When the sun gives way to April Showers, Here's a thought that we should never miss”.

"Though April showers may come your way, They bring the flowers that bloom in May;

And if it's raining, have no regrets, Because it isn't raining rain you know,It's raining violets.

And when you see clouds upon the hill, you soon will see crowds of daffodils;

So keep on looking for the bluebird, and listening for his song,
Whenever April showers come along”. *

The Apostle Paul, in the New Testament, expressed a similar thought when he said, and this is a paraphrase, “Troubles bring about patience in your life. And patience leads us to have experience with God. And our experience with God leads us to have hope and confidence in God". *

Al Jolson was pointing out that, even though we enjoy the sunshine, if there was no occasional rain our lives would miss the blessing of having the beautiful flowers. Paul is giving the same thought a spiritual application by saying that, even though we enjoy the times when our lives move along smoothly, we need to recognize that the difficulties we experience in life force us to grow and become our best selves, and they force us also to get to know God better than we would otherwise.

In a way, Paul was just rewording Mr. Jolson's song to say something

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