When the Winds Blow

Joplin, Alabama, Mississippi, Minnesota, tornadoes, floods…My heart breaks, my mind reels.

Tornadoes touch down and damage and kill both in the West and East of my town. My mind wonders…Why not us God? Thankful it wasn’t us, but why did He allow the tornado to jump? Humbly I feel blessed and I hurt for those not so blessed.

I hurt for parents whose babies have been ripped from their arms by these powerful winds. My heart breaks for children whose parents were “taken by God.”

Yet there is hope. God is there. In some ways that is hard to take. God there in the midst of something He could have stopped, but He didn’t. So with Job we say “Though He slay me, yet I will hope in Him…” Job 13:15

It is like the wrestling we have been discussing this week. Clinging to Him when nothing else makes sense. Running to Him our strong tower while the wind blows. Asking Him the whys and the why-nots. Thankful, yet humbled in our gratitude. Changed by the winds that damage and kill. The floods that destroy so much. Yet unshaken because of the One who is beyond knowing yet wants to be known, the One who I will never fully understand this side of eternity is not surprised or helpless. Instead He loves and is full of grace.

This the view I had in the safe room of my house two nights ago. The night the storm jumped over us.

We stocked our safe-room that night in case it happened. When around midnight it did we carried our kids here – to our safe-room. My precious family fell asleep to the sound of the news streaming through my laptop. It is a precious moment that I will never forget. A living picture of God’s strong tower.

“The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.” Proverbs 18:10

From this vantage point I knew those words to be true. Regardless if the Lord chose to keep us safe on Earth, I knew He would keep us safe in eternity. It didn’t matter if everything around me as gone. It only mattered that He was there.

Don’t forget to check out my wrestling with God series click here…Next Friday will be an opportunity for you to fellow bloggers to link-up and share what you have wrestled with God over. Until then click here to see how you can enter a give-away for a $50 amazon gift-card.