It Takes Both Sun And Rain - Sarah Adams

1805–48

Sarah Adams loved the theater and hoped to be an actress. She even had some success in the field. In 1937 her portrayal of Lady Macbeth on the London stage received very favorable reviews, but poor health kept her from continuing her acting career.

Yet her creativity couldn’t be squashed, and she turned to writing poems and hymns. One of her most famous works is the hymn “Nearer, My God, to Thee.” She wrote it for a pastor who was working on a sermon about Jacob’s dream of a stairway leading to heaven (see Genesis 28:10-17). When the minister complained that he couldn’t find an appropriate hymn to accompany his talk, Sarah offered to write one, and she did. The song is still sung in churches today, inspiring people of faith who are seeking to feel physically and spiritually close to God.

Where did Sarah get her inspiration after she was unable to continue acting? How was she able to give up the stage and embrace the idea that there was something else for her—writing? Perhaps one of her poems has some answers.

He sendeth sun, he sendeth shower,

Alike they’re needful for the flower:

And joys and tears alike are sent

To give the soul fit nourishment.

As comes to me or cloud or sun,

Father! thy will, not mine, be done!

She recognized that God had plans for her (plans to prosper her and to give her hope and a future, according to the prophet Jeremiah), and that sometimes it takes both sun and rain, good times and bad times, to understand what those plans are and then get down to doing them.

Like Sarah, you might not be doing what you hoped you would be when you got to this stage of life. If you’re not, can you get a glimpse of God’s larger plan? Can you accept the rain as well as the sun?

How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.”

James 4:14-15