Through Life's Storms
As you know, on Octorber 9th Hurricane Isaias paid the panhandle of Florida a visit. It rushed ashore at Destin Florida as a cat 2 storm. I think back to the days preceading landfall. Like so many others I kept a close eye in the storm. Why? Because we live 35 miles straight north of Destin. We live full time in a motorhome and because of mechanical issues we could not take our motorhome to a safe location. We stayed put. I was not real worried as the weather people kept saying Pensacola was the target and Pensacola is about 80 miles east. I new we would experience tropical storm winds so we did all the things you do before the storm. We put the lawn furniture in the shed. Took down the canopy. Closed up the motorhome and went to the church building to wait it out.
Life continued just at a differnt location. I fixed supper. Pam cleaned up after we ate. Just like normal. I settled into a recliner to watch a hockey game, until we lost power around 7pm. Not a surprise. It was blowing pretty hard by then as the hurricane had made landfall. Then my cell service started getting "ify". And the winds continued to blow. At about 10 o'clock I opened the back door of the church to a whole new view of the storm's fury. Sheets of rain and the trees where all leaning towards me at angles that had to hurt even the trees. I shut the door. Walked back to where Pam was calmly doing a jigsaw puzzle and said, "This is not good".
We spent the night in the church office on a hide-a-bed soffa. It wasn't terrible as one of the staff had added a memory foam pad to the bed. Thank you John. But even then, we did not sleep much. Teddy, our dog was not fazed. He slept. We got up Saturday morning at 6 am not sure what we would find back at the motorhome. I was certain we were about to be homleess. How could the motorhome survive those winds and the torential rain? And this brings me to the reason I am writing this blog today.
God is good! Even in the storm. I know a lot of people who deny the exsistance of God. They say He is a fairytale.
The next morning we headed back to the motorhome about 6 am not knowing what we would find. Big tree limbs and branches littered the ground on the property. I told Pam that we would have damage of some kind. As we walked up closer we could see that the motorhome was still there. The shed was still standing as was the dog fence. I forgot to mentions that prior to the storm our prayer to God was that He would spare our home. That He would protect our worldly possesions if it was in His will to do so. Bur if not, that was Okay too.
God is real. God is good. And God answers prayer. There can be no other explanation to what we exoerienced. A tree lying right next to the shed. No damage. No damage to the motorhome. We went inside. Dry as a bone. Everthing, just as we left it.
We experienced a Jesus moment similar to what is recorded in Matthew 8 when Jesus got into the boat, his disciples and went with him. "Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea, so that the boat began to be swamped by the waves. Yet Jesus kept sleeping. They went to him and woke him up. "Lord!" they cried, "save us! We're going to die!" He asked them, "Why are you afraid, you who have little faith?" Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. The men were amazed. "What kind of man is this?" they asked. "Even the winds and the sea obey him!" (Matthew 8:23-27)
So friends, please give your life to Jesus. He and only He, will bring you through the storm. Whatever that storm amy be, Jesus is there with you. I Believe. Do you?