Chieko Okazaki was in Church leadership when I was born and will be a patron saint in my family forever. In her 2002 book Being Enough, she preached about sparrow prayers. Sparrow prayers are one of Okazaki’s answer to the same question I pondered a few months ago: why does the same Lord who promises that if we ask He will give us not always give us what we ask for, even when we’re asking for good things?

Sparrow prayers are smaller prayers that God can answer when He and She can’t answer the big asks at that moment. Because our Heavenly Parents delight in blessing us, when they can’t do the big stuff (for a variety of reasons that Okazki explores here), They shower us with the small. Rain is one of my sparrow prayers.

Growing up in Hawaii, rain was the rhythm I fell asleep to most nights. Hawaii rain is dense. It falls thickly and steadily and warmly, and after I moved to the desert for school, I missed its consistency. When it did rain, especially as I was falling asleep, especially when I was having a hard time, it always felt like love. Every time it rained it felt like God had seen me and said, “Time to send Marissa a little love. Let’s get a rain storm in there.” God may not have been in Elijah’s wind or earthquakes of fire (1 Kings 19), but He was in my rain. So whenever things got really bad, whenever I really needed to know that God was there and had my back, I prayed for rain.