Storms
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Springtime is approaching. Birds are chirping outside my window signaling rebirth and new life. The warmth of the suns once forgotten rays allows me to roll my windows down as I drive and feel the wind in my hair. Trees are budding, flowers delicate yet strong stems are breaking through the earth, and the sky is even bluer. Don’t you just love springtime. Toss aside those winter coats and scarves, warmth is coming.
Gratitude should abound with spring, but with with the abundance of blessings comes the season of storms. Life and weather are very similar.
Today there was a tornado outbreak that caused havoc and damage with torrential downpours and powerful winds. While sitting in my office, in the safe confines, I would look out the window and see the black threatening sky. The wind howled as they whipped trees like disobedient three year old kids. Buckets of rain flowed, sometimes so hard it was hard to see anything in a reasonable distance. When you’re in a storm, you don’t feel like heaven is raining blessings. You feel like it’s drowning and eroding your solid ground. It’s so easy to only see destruction when your watching it’s wrath, and harder to see the purpose in it all. It’s easy to pray to God for safety from the storms, it’s harder to realize that the storm was created by His mighty hands.
You may be going through a storm right now. You may feel beaten, crushed, fragmented, torn to bits with little hope. You may be clinching your fists in the middle of your rubble cursing out to God. These may be hard words to hear, but maybe the storm was meant to destroy what you thought was good so God could reveal something so much greater but you would never have seen it because what you thought was good was what you already had? Sometimes God has to break us apart, brick by brick, to build us up stronger than ever before. When we rely on our own dream home for security and protection, we miss out on the relationship of fully leaning and clinging onto the One who will defend and protect no matter the cost. Sometimes it takes drastic measures to see God. But through those tough moments in life you can rest assured that the God who allowed the storms can also cause the storms to cease. With just a whisper, the winds can stop, the waves can be still, the sun can rise again. With just a whisper of His voice.
It’s all about perspective. One of my favorite verses about perspective is
“He brings the clouds to punish people, or to water His earth and show His love.”
Job 37:13 NIV
You may feel like God is punishing you with what you are going through, but what if God is merely showing you love in His mysterious ways and you can’t even see it? What if is a heavy question to ask oneself, but it’s a question that definitely needs to be asked when you find yourself in a storm.
What if God hasn’t left me?
What if God is still in control?
What if this is in His plans?
What if God really is good?
What if God really loves me?
When you ask, He will answer with an emphatic Yes.
Yes, I do love you and Yes, I am here. Yes, you may be in a low place, but Yes, I haven’t left you. Yes, you can overcome this storm because I already overcame. Yes, yes, yes.
May you see storms as just another means for rain. Without rain the flowers could never bloom. How sad the world would be without those colorful tulips to showcase His creative loving goodness.
