Sister Rainbow and Mr. Toad

We've had a good deal of rain here in Houston the past few days, which we've sorely needed. Rain brings on two things -- rainbows and toads -- and I've seen them both within less than 12 hours. I've gone from the most beautiful to the least attractive, and they both absolutely delighted me!

Last night at 7pm-ish (if your Myers-Briggs type includes a "P" as mine does, you're likely to operate on "ish" time), I looked out my window to see if there was enough of a break in the rain for me to take a quick walk. The sky was lit up with the most vivid rainbow I've ever seen. I was so excited that I ran out my front door without my shoes on and just stood there laughing for joy. Glory hallelujah! "My heart leaps up when I behold / A rainbow in the sky!" William Wordsworth wrote that, to which I say AMEN!

This morning as I approached the door to our church office while it was still dark outside, I noticed a small dark object moving slowly ahead of me. I could just make out the warty skin of a toad so bent down to say "Hello, Mr. Toad! What brings you here?" If you've read The Wind in the Willows, which I wrote about in my post of September 3, you will remember what a lovable, fun-loving rascal Toad is and therefore you might understand how, after making his acquaintance, I can't see one of these homely little creatures without thinking of him. I wanted to scoop up this Mr. Toad and talk to him some more while petting him, but the sidewalk was too wet to put down the things I was carrying, and my rather limited experience with toads is that it takes two hands to catch them and I had only one free. So I bid goodbye to Toad, happy that I had at least seen him and enjoyed his company for a brief moment.

Rainbows and toads -- how great is that?

Let the earth bless the Lord! All creatures, great and small, bless the Lord! Sister Rainbow and Mr. Toad, praise and exalt God above all forever!

P.S. Yep, that's a picture of Mr. Toad above. No photograph could ever do justice to the rainbow I saw last night, but an image of Mr. Toad seems just about right for this post.