December Storm

I had an unusual treat this evening. Lynn and I had spent most of the day hauling boxes from the apartment to the house, cleaning, scrubbing, vacuuming, etc.

We took a break for dinner and decided to eat out on the picnic table on the porch since it was so warm. Something caught my eye. A flash in the distance. And then another. Here it was, a December evening, and off in the distance was a lightening storm rolling in from the horizon. How delightfully unexpected.

There are certain things that you expect in December, especially if you're from anywhere but the south. While listening to Christmas music and admiring the lighting decorations around the neighborhood you expect cold. You expect snow. You expect fires in the fireplace and cocoa. You expect frost on the windows and the thick silence of a winter night. What you DON'T expect is a thunderstorm.

As Lynn and I ate our spaghetti and watched the lightening grow closer I thought to myself how this illustrates life at times. Every so often the routine, the normal, the expected is strangely interrupted by an event that had never been anticipated. Sometimes these events leave us shaken. Sometimes they leave us in awe. But if we are a follwer of Christ, whether the event shakes us or awes us, one thing is for certain: Both the presence and power of God is to be found in that event.

Sometimes storms are destructive and forever alter our future. Sometimes they seem to roll around the horizon and never really invade our space, except with the beauty of a light show. Sometimes God allows these unexpected events to shake and forever alter our future. Sometimes He brings us through them unscathed. But this one thing remains for certain. Even if God allows you to be shaken to your core by a totally out-of-place, unexpected event...both His presence and His power is there in that event and through that power He will hold you close through the storm.