On Monday of this week there were storm clouds brewing in the West and the warm Gulf Stream air pouring up from the South. During lunchtime the wind was whipping, the trees were swaying and it felt like nature was in a big turmoil. The sky turned pitch black around 2:30 in the afternoon, and that’s when the warm South and the colder West collided. Where I work there was golf ball size hail. I went out in the hallway and you couldn’t, to use a Southern expression, ‘hear yourself think’ for the hail hitting the sky light. I looked out the window into the parking lot to see big balls of crooked, jagged ice hitting the pavement.
Do you ever feel down about your circumstances and wonder how you might get your spirit lifted up. In Susan Lenzkes’ book, Life Is Like Licking Honey Off a Thorn, there is a passage that reads, “We take the laughter and the tears however they come, and let our God of reality make sense of it all.” Lenzkes says some people are optimists who “camp in pleasures and good memories,” denying the brokenness. Others are pessimists who “focus on life’s losses, losing joy and victory in the process.” But people of faith are realists who “receive it all – all the good and bad of life – and repeatedly choose to know that God really loves us and is constantly at work for our good and His glory.”
I looked outside and noticed a little while later that a friendly wind came up and began to blow the clouds away. Suddenly, by 5:00 PM there were patches of bright blue sky in between the clouds. The next morning was crisp with a crystal clear blue sky.
God loves us, and He’s getting us ready for the day when skies will be forever blue.
The purposes of God are right,
Although we may not see
Just how He works all things for good
And transforms tragedy.
-Sper
God promises a safe landing- but not necessarily a calm passage.
As we serve together, I remain,
Your friend,
Mark David Jackson
