This post is a part of the Five-Minute Friday link up. We write for just 5 minutes on a one-word prompt and see what happens. No heavy editing allowed. Today’s word is “view.” Check it out.

I’ve just spent the last three days at the beach. By myself.

I’m an extrovert who gets my energy from being around people. So even before I left I thought to myself Is this a good idea? But I went anyway. I didn’t have big plans, I just wanted to be somewhere other than home, and try as I might, organizing something for the whole family was draining me.

So, I spent the big bucks and got a room with an ocean view at a hotel about an hour and a half from home. I planned on working, but not being on any kind of schedule. I’d get up when I wanted, work when I wanted, go to the beach (when the temperature dipped into the 80s), and figure out what else as the days went along.

Things at home had been a bit stormy, not because of anything anyone had done, but just because of some things my husband and I are digging into that are hard and for which we haven’t yet seen the beauty.

So I wanted beauty.

But I didn’t expect the storm

Now, I live in Florida, and summer thunderstorms are normal, so I’m not quite sure why I thought they wouldn’t come here at the beach, but last night, a large thunderstorm came right up on me.

But today the clouds are wispy again. People are enjoying the beach—it’s a cooler 79º as I write this, and I’m getting ready to head back home. I will miss the view I’ve had, but I’ll be glad to get back to my peeps.

About 4 years ago I wrote this reflective piece that I wanted to share here. It helped me gain perspective for what I’m returning to: a storm not yet passed us by, but an encouragement to find the beauty in the midst of it all.

In the past several days I’ve had a Redbud friend whose husband had a brain aneurysm and is unresponsive in the hospital and had to be medically paralyzed so his body could heal and he wouldn’t fight the ventilator.

And another Redbud friend who has a 5-year-old son who had to start chemotherapy today for a cancerous tumor.

And we will say goodbye tomorrow to our friend Elizabeth who passed away after triple bypass surgery.

And I think, life sucks, man. And my kids know I don’t even use that word. I don’t like the way it sounds. It’s ugly to me in the way it’s used. But somehow it seems fitting.

And then I see rain falling in the sunshine.

I look out my front window in the morning light and see a steady but soft rain coming down surrounded by sunshine.

It reminds me that my tears, like that rain, can fall even if there is an unshakeable joy in my life. I know that my Redeemer lives, but that there is heartache in this life.

I know that God is in control and that He is good, even if the outcome of my circumstances isn’t what I hoped for.

I hope in God.

The author and perfecter of my faith.

My circumstances aren’t perfect and they never will be.

The people around me aren’t perfect, and they never will be either.

But God is perfect, and since He’s the one in charge, I can rest.

And you know, that rain falling in the sunshine is beautiful, if I can look between the drops and see His grace and mercy like the rays of the sun.