How Long?

Wild winds continue to pummel trees and flowers for the second day in a row. The primroses are losing colour before my eyes, reds turning brown. Parrot tulips we were admiring two days ago are worn with the constant barrage, petals beginning to drop before their time. Climbing rose and clematis, inadequately supported, whip up and down against the windows. Still the winds blow, relentlessly.

Upstairs, Mhairi struggles with technology. Website hosting, internet connections, all critical to her work. With grace which must come from God, she speaks calmly to the help desk, having waited an hour on hold, and tries to get things working again. It seems that as soon as one problem is fixed, another issue arises.

Wild winds buffet so many throughout this pandemic world. Unemployment. Lack of child care for working parents whose jobs are essential. Loneliness. Abuse. Empty banks and empty kitchen cupboards. Deadly disease. Uncertainty over the future. How do we come out of this lock down safely?

How long, Lord? How long? You are the Almighty, Creator God, and to you we cry out for mercy, for help. In you we trust, for you we wait. You are our faithful God, and you are our hope and our salvation. We look to you for strength, for steadfastness, for peace.

The Wild Wind

Gales buffet the house, bending trees and branches and carrying small birds off course. The sun is shining but with that wild wind – I wouldn’t call it a beautiful day.

But my husband just did, and he pointed out that the wind is drying the garage and fields, melting the snow and ice, and restoring a balance to the earth. So, I guess I shouldn’t complain.

Of course I shouldn’t complain. This is the day that the Lord has made, and he knows why we need winds like this to preserve the eco-system. 

I have heard sad news over these last few days. News of a young woman, studying to be a doctor, stricken with cancer for the second time in a few years, this one triggered by the chemo she received to kill the first cancer attack. News of another young woman, age 27, killed in a car accident. One of my cousins, aged 57, is on his deathbed with cancer he’s fought for a couple of decades. 

I don’t understand why such terrible things happen. Why God doesn’t intervene in every pending tragedy and prevent it. It’s not the same as the winds and the eco-system, which is part of God’s design, though perhaps there is a possible parallel. Natural disasters are occurring more frequently now, as pollution perverts and changes the way it was meant to be. 

Sin has perverted the way God intended humanity to live, and we live with the consequences. We live in a fallen world, and in that fallen world, bad things happen, things that God never intended to happen.

Wild winds blow in every life. We don’t understand. We do know that God stands beside us, weeps with us, comforts us by the power of his Holy Spirit, and strengthens us.

We do have a hope which is sure, that one day God will wipe away every tear, and that he will re-create the earth so that it is exactly as he intended it to be. Thanks to the price Jesus paid on the cross.

All creation groans in anticipation of that glorious day. Come, Lord Jesus.

Storm Damage

Wild winds and heavy rains swept through UK yesterday and knocked out our power just as we prepared breakfast for a paying guest. We had to finish it on a camping stove, which made it a little different from his usual!

Driving down to help paint our son’s flat, we encountered debris and branches and even trees down at various points along the way. When we returned hours later, a broom bush had broken off into the drive, and various other bushes straggled into the pathway. Cut and tidied away now, the drive looks better than it did before (slightly...)

Emotional storms hit all of us at different times and bring damage, too. Sometimes cherished opinions are uprooted; sometimes new ideas are revealed to have no lasting value. 

Spiritual storms can rock our foundations, but they also serve to reveal who we are clinging too, and who is holding us. It’s good to clear out the debris every so often. It’s good to have erroneous beliefs exposed and uprooted. It’s healthy to rake out the undergrowth that has collapsed after the storm and allow refreshing air to circulate in our souls.

Storms can be dramatic and scary, inconvenient and disruptive and destructive. But they can also renew and refresh and encourage healthy and strong growth. 

And the calm after the storm exudes peace.