Songs in the Storm

Thunder peals, in terrifying echoes, bang across the heavens, chasing each other.  Wind lashes the trees as hail and rain beat against my windows.  I confess I am not a huge fan of storms.  I understand why they happen and that they are necessary to vacuum clean the atmosphere.  I know that BUT I also know how powerful they are and what destruction can result.  It’s the not knowing that strikes fear in my heart.  And I am alone!  I pray for protection and for the God of the storm to quiet my fearful heart.  Then I wait.

I am finally able to lay in bed as the storm moves eastward.  And then I hear it.  I hear the music- music created by the storm.  The wind chimes outside my bedroom window were playing a deep Key-of-D melody for me; and it was only because of the storm.  I listened and was quieted.

In life, storms hit, expected and unexpected.  I need to let the God of the storms quiet me and I need to choose to listen for the music.  If I don’t, my focus will be on what is happening around me.  It’s certainly not easy to hear the music; it takes a refocusing on the God of the storm.

I have a feeling there is a song in every storm but I have to CHOOSE to quiet my fearful heart and listen for it.

5:45 am. Its already 80 degrees.  I’ve just come in from setting the soaker hoses.  The boney, dry ground soaks up the meager watering almost before it is out of the hose.

I am reminded of Ps. 63:1 which I read earlier this morning.

O God, you are my God;
    I earnestly search for you.
My soul thirsts for you;
    my whole body longs for you
in this parched and weary land
    where there is no water.

I thirst for you as parched land thirsts for rain Ps. 143:6

David expresses how much he longed for God- like a dry and weary land, a parched land, without water. Did he feel dry and weary spiritually?  Or was he just hungry for more of God than he was experiencing at the time?

It got me to thinking; am I hungrily seeking God as much as my bone-dry garden seeks moisture?  That is a whole lot of thirst! Am I satisfied with just getting by? Or do I really want more?  What does my hunger really look like?  What keeps me from seeking God that earnestly?  Is it busyness, offenses, pleasure, “stuff”, relationships?  Or is it a laziness, selfishness, or callousness?

This much I do know, if I don’t seek God I will become like that dry and weary land.  So, just as I water my dependent plants daily, I need to go to God for daily living water so that I become a well-watered garden (Is 58:11).  I don’t want to be just any garden; I want to be a lush, thriving one.