Sometimes It Rains

By Christina Holt

It was the first night of girls’ camp. It had started to rain lightly, but we figured it would pass by. As the night went on, though, the rain got harder and the wind blew stronger. The group in my tent tried to sleep, but because we had only staked the four corners of our tent when we set it up, the sides were being pushed in and puddles started forming around the edges. It got so windy I was afraid the wind would take our tent with it!

Pretty soon our tent began to leak, and we were forced to move all of our things to the center of the tent. I huddled in a ball and started to silently cry. This was my first day of my first year at girls’ camp, and already things were going wrong.

At this point, my tent leader started to sing the song that we had chosen for our camp song, called “Sometimes He Lets It Rain.” The chorus says:

Sometimes He lets it rain

He lets fierce winds blow

Sometimes it takes a storm

To lead a heart where it can grow

He can move mountains of grief

And oceans of pain

But sometimes He lets it rain.

As we sang, we could hear the rain coming down on us, but we felt happier than before. We finally went and slept in the cars of the leaders. I only got four hours of sleep, but, amazingly, I felt energized and ready for our hike the next morning.

At our testimony meeting on the last night of camp, nearly all the girls who were in my tent bore their testimony about how that night strengthened us. He let it rain that night, but that storm led our hearts to where they could grow.

Illustration by Greg Thorkelson