The School of the Storm

Well, it' s been a day of epiphany and revelation.

Don't you love that? When God just yanks the covers off which you've pulled over your head and removes the hand you're holding so tightly over your eyes to hide from the storm booming all around...and says to you, "HOW can you see this gorgeous rainbow I've hung in the sky with your eyes all covered like that?" And you look with trepidation and lo and behold, where the world seemed to be ending just moments earlier, is the Bow of God's Promise, hanging in the dissipating clouds and patches of blue sky are beginning to show. It speaks of the promise which says, "I will not drown you again. That despair that once buried you ten feet under in the mud from the storm-to-end-all-storms...it will never again consume you completely." Yes, there will be rain showers, even storms...but they will never again have the power to utterly destroy me like they once did...a long time ago, to be sure, but the terror remains.

And my God has been faithful to keep that promise...even when bad news quakes my landscape...Or a good friend deserts and betrays me....or when health fails and it looks to be permanent... Despair flirts with me, to be sure. It pokes its head into my heart and says, "haha! Gotcha now!" But the Hope, sent by my friend, Faith, comes and beats it back with a stick., telling it, "BEGONE! You have no authority or guest privileges here so WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE???"

And in really, really bad storms...like this one, when I'm SURE that all is lost, the Lord of the Storm himself, comes in, hangs that bow in the clouds and gently walks me to the window to have a look.

This is not twenty years ago.
"You are not the same woman you were twenty years ago.
But I am the same Lord of the Storm--I dug you out of the mud all those years ago, and then I promised that if you would cling to my hand, the rain and mud could never again have the power to overpower you completely."

And He is --and was--and always will be faithful to keep his promises. You'd think I'd relax a bit and lean on Faith's shoulders a bit more heavily. But I always was a slow learner in the school room of Life. Thank the Lord, that Patience--is a good teacher and always lives up to her name!