Storms...

If we could only have the view from above the clouds…

The temperature had fallen more than 20 degrees since the storm had come through. Electricity had been knocked out for several hours and as evening set in, our world had grown very dark…and was growing cold. Little did I know the storms that had passed a few hours before had almost destroyed a neighboring town. Destruction was everywhere…just a few miles away…

As I stood outside, staring into the darkness that had consumed my neighborhood, the silence was deafening. Houses…homes where children play and run about, now had vanished. Even the creatures that prowled through the night were silent. But something…something kept calling me to stay outside in the darkness…stay…

The wind, still blowing from the storms, was finally beginning to remove the clouds overhead. Those clouds, what were once like cotton pillows, now were stained with dirt and debris from the devastation below. Flashes of light was now piercing through the darkness and exposing the wonder of the heavens above. The moon had never seemed so bright in all my life. But it was in those instances where I could actually see above the clouds…where the moon and stars illuminated my deep dark world…that shadows began to emerge…homes that once were lost, now started appearing slowing out of the darkness. It was there that I saw the calmness, the peace that remained intact even though my view was restricted…restricted to the under-side of the storm. Though all the while, from my vantage point, that terror loomed in the skies, peace was always there in front of me…calling out to me…just above the storm.

It wasn’t all that long ago, when a group of men set out on a journey…a journey that took them out to sea. And in the midst of that journey, a mighty storm arose. Panic and fear set in…desperation screamed from their very souls. As the winds howled and the waves crashed, those men knew their vessel wasn’t designed for such a powerful storm. It was only a matter of time…
Far too many times, I find myself a passenger on that same boat. Everywhere I turn, waves are crashing in around me. And far too many times, I feel the strains of life with every fiber of my being…reaching for life preservers only to have them wash out to sea. Just like those men, holding on to dear life, I find myself cowering down in the back of the boat, pleading for help. And in my desperation, He hears me…He heard them. As my Master makes his way toward the bow of the boat, staring face-to-face with eminent destruction, He stands firm…strong…believing… asking me to join Him…to look at things from a different perspective. I try to make my way forward, grasping for His open arms, but I’m struggling. And He knows it.

But in an instant, He beckons the wind and the waves and the storms vanish and peace becomes still. And in that same moment, I hear Him calling out to me…to look beyond my fears…to realize that storms are only temporary…to see that the light has now penetrated the darkness…to see the view from above the clouds…