The Eye of the Storm

It amazes me sometimes how fearful small children can be of storms. The bright lights and loud noises that they often ooh and ahh and praise over, suddenly become horrific in the dark during a storm. Although I am never afraid of a storm, I am sometimes afraid of the devastation to which it can sometimes lead. So during a storm, I am very alert and protective of my children and now grandchildren.  Storms, like life can be very precarious, and certainly we must protect ourselves from both, with fervent prayers and supplication...

When the kids and I first moved to New Mexico, we were all alone in our huge adobe house. I was all  they had to protect them, since Tim was away finishing a home in Michigan. It was hard sometimes doing everything by myself and making all the quick decisions. But in a way, I relished it as I was closer to my children more than ever before. We seemed to begin to work as a family unit, rather than just getting by. It was the first time we melded into a family.

The storms in New Mexico were fierce. The thunder was so loud and the lighting shot across the sky from one side to the other. In the daytime, it was magical. But in the evening, it was a frightening mess. On one such night, the storm began, and I got up to open my bedroom window so that I could listen to the rain and be lulled back to sleep. But just as I would drift off, one by one my children would come in, and we would rearrange and scoot to make room for the next child. They began to giggle and tell stories. Lastly, my oldest son Jeff came in, he looked at me sheepishly and smiled,"I can't let you sleep in here alone unprotected. I gotta come in here and take car of you all!" and he clinmbed into bed with us. And we all huddled closer together, finally drifting off to sleep. The closeness, the need to feel secure, the Oneness of it all.

 It was a memory that still burns in my mind. The loud storm, the children coming in one by one, looking for safety and security in my big, warm bed, looking to me to comfort them. Ironically, that is how I feel about our Heavenly Father. Sure, during the day, I am tough, I can handle all of life storms. But then gradually one by one We come to Him for protection, knowing the He is safe and warm. We cuddle next to His promises asking for comfort and answers, until we too can fall asleep forgetting our storms.

I have no real purpose for writing this. There is no huge epiphany here. Just a gentle reminder that life storms are not quite as frightening and overwhelming as we sometimes make them out to be. We need to be mindful that the dark, the thunder, the massive lightening is only as scary as we allow it to be until we turn it over to God and allow Him to make peace over it...Mark 4:39