a storm’s a brewin’

Have you ever noticed how quickly the sky can change when a storm is coming? Clouds darken. The leaves on the trees are upturned revealing their light green underside. The air is heavy. And then the thunder billows and in the distance the lightning streaks across the sky. Rain comes pounding down, flooding roads and soaking everything it touches. Here in Pennsylvania that change can happen quickly and sometimes without much warning we find ourselves running for shelter from the storm.

Pennsylvania Summer Storm Clouds

In the Bible, in Genesis, Noah and his family found shelter in an ark as God prepared them for the earth to be changed. Change. How do you feel about that word? I know how I feel about it. I love it! Probably unlike Noah, I see every change as a new opportunity to see things differently or try something new. And to me that is exciting. 

A couple years ago, I changed our bedroom around. Not because it needed it but because I could. And when things are calm, I like to throw in a little chaos and change. Much to my family’s chagrin, it is just who I am. Do you have someone in your life like that? Someone who leaps to make changes only to look back and see the dust settle while waiting for everyone else to catch up in their excitement? 

So, I changed the whole bedroom around. And I mean everything. My oldest daughter, Jael helped me move the furniture and as we finished moving the bed from one side to the other, she looked at me and said, “You do remember your bed was in that same spot four years ago.” I looked at her quizzically. How could she possibly remember that? The disbelief in my eyes was obvious. In a matter of fact tone, she said, “Your bed was in this exact spot the morning that you told us Grandma died. We came over to your bed after you called and I knew what was coming. And then (a few days later), we changed the bedroom around because you were trying to keep me busy and my mind occupied after she died.”

Wow. In my whirlwind of change, the significance of me moving the bedroom around had everything to do with welcoming change and finding a new solution to make things better. Which it usually does. The day Jael and I moved the bedroom around was fun for me, but so much more significant for her. It resurfaced a memory. A memory that impacted who she was. And actually one of my worst ever as I held Grandma until she breathed her last breath and then had to wake up a few hours later to tell my fifteen, thirteen and eleven year-old that she was gone. It was torturous. 

That’s change. It can alter our view of life or energize us.

In Genesis 9, God said to Noah: 

“I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.” - Genesis 9:9-11 NIV

Whether we love change or hate it, in this one change, God established that he would never again destroy all of life through a flood. And that is good. But depending on who you are and where you have come from, one change can be bad and good. I imagine Noah would have felt that way about the flood when everything changed. It can be easy and hard. But at some point change comes and the storm stops so you can see the rainbow and appreciate the beauty. 

I hope you see that beauty this week. 

Searching for wisdom and asking for grace,

Jody