~Journal entry from April 25, 2008~
I stayed up and watched a storm roll in this evening. When I stepped outside, I immediately was caught up in the expectant thrill that trembled in the sweltering air. Lightning lit up the sky to the North, illuminating the night with its flash. Thunder rumbled in the distance; far away it seemed, yet every moment it grew nearer. Like a symphony, the thunderstorm was gathering power, approaching the climax. Wind whipped through the trees, tangling their branches and wrenching them apart once more. The first few drops of rain were hurled upon the earth at the mercy of the ruthless wind. Soon they grew in size and number, and the lightning flashed forebodingly nearer, while the thunder was increased to a drumroll. Loath to go inside, I stayed until the wind threatened to pound the rain mercilessly into my face, though I stood under the eaves. Indoors, the volume was less, but still exciting. As the storm broke in its full force, releasing the storehouses of the clouds and filling the sky with brightness, I thought of the word 'awesome'. Awesome surely best describes this wonder of God's nature, yet how we abuse this word in our culture! Watching this storm gave me a sense of the true meaning, and I was filled with awe at the omnipotence of its Creator.
Turning back to the storm, I fixed my eyes on the heavens and anticipated the delightful shiver brought by each lightning flash. It illuminated a blue, mystical world, hazy and shadowed, with the rain falling in sheets and obscuring familiar landmarks. Hail was mingled with the rain, and added further to the magnificent volume. The thunder continued to rumble, seldom releasing its full potential, but threatening all the same. When it did crack, everything else, wind, rain, and hail, seemed to hush for a moment, intimidated, and then resume louder than before.
Now there is a quiet lull, yet it is just as beautiful. It is as if it was a movement in a symphony, written for effect. Don't we wish our human composers could dream up something even close to being as wonderful! But nothing can equal God as a Master Musician, God as an artist, God as an author. We try and we fail. But, ever gracious, He is always there, revealing His glorious works of art just when we need to see them. And in seeing them, we see Him. For He is ever present in creation, in history, in our lives.
This made me think of some amazing verses from Job. I love that book, it is so encouraging and it makes me feel very small and insignificant. (Which I need sometimes!)
~~~~~~~~
"Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, or have you seen the storehouses of the hail, which I have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war?
What is the way to the place where the light is distributed, or where the east wind is scattered upon the earth?"
"Who has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain and a way for the thunder bolt, to bring rain on the land where no man is, on the desert in which there is no man, to satisfy the waste and desolate land, and to make the ground sprout with grass?"
"Has the rain a father, or who has begotten the drops of dew? From whose womb did the ice come forth, and who has given birth to the frost of heaven?
The waters become hard like stone, and the face of the deep is frozen."
"Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that a flood may cover you?
Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go, and say to you, 'Here we are'?
Who has put wisdom in the inward parts or given understanding to the mind?
Who can number the clouds by wisdom? Or who can tilt the waterskins of the heavens, when the dust runs into a mass and the clods stick together?"
"Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it."
Excerpts from Job 38.
Amazing, isn't it? That the God who is the Lord of the storm, of the heavens, of the earth, of all creation, all that is seen and all that is invisible; that He should stoop to raise me up with His right hand! That He should consent, should invite me to serve Him, to be His forever! I will never understand. It is altogether beyond my power to comprehend. I can only worship Him with my whole heart, and offer up to Him the only thing which I have to give: myself.
~~~~~~~~
Check out Grace's blog...
~~~~~~~~
< href="http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Narniagirl">< _fcksavedurl="">< _fcksavedurl="">< src="http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/uploads/n/Narniagirl/82316.png">< /a>
< href="http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Narniagirl/">< src="http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/uploads/n/Narniagirl/82318.png">< /a>
