From the Study...

Dear Friends,

This morning the weatherman on the morning news was all excited about the stormy conditions we were going to see later in the day. He had the radar doing the ‘future cast’, which showed just when the line of storms would come through and just how intense they would be. He said the storms would be severe and there was even a risk for tornadoes. Sure enough, around 10:45 this morning the sky in the west got very dark and the wind began to pick up. At about the same time I heard the weather radio alarm in the Child Development Center office sound off. Suddenly we were under a tornado warning, meaning there was a tornado nearby on the ground. The teachers brought the kids out of their classrooms and we sat with them on the floor out in the hallways until the warning was over and the danger had passed. Now there is that calm after the storm that carries with it a more peaceful peace than what was before.

We have all felt that after-storm peace. We know it first-hand after the noise of the thunder and wind has stopped and the rain has washed the air clear and given everything in the world around us a good rinse. We apply it metaphorically to the storms of life that come and go around us. It comes after the noise stops and all is quiet. It’s when we realize we had become so accustomed to the noise of life as it builds around us that we had forgotten what calm really sounds like. The psalmist wrote about it in Psalm 29. He writes about the powerful voice of the Lord thundering over the mighty waters, the winds bending the trees, and the Lord striking with flashes of lightning. Then, he ends with these verses. “The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord is enthroned as King forever. The Lord gives strength to His people; the Lord blesses His people with peace.”

My prayer is that the calm after the storm in Psalm 29 and the calm after the storm this morning will be a sort of foretaste for the new year ahead. It’s been a pretty rugged three years and we could all use a peace to replace the noise we have been living in. I believe Christ is calling us to a new peace in the year ahead. It is my prayer for us all.

Grace and peace,

Mike