Out of the Storm
Over the years, I’ve tried to write down all the hilarious and crazy things my children say – to remember the moments that make you stop and laugh out loud, the moments you love them just a little more than usual and your heart wants to squeeze and kiss ‘em to pieces, the moments that make all the hard ones worth it. You know, the moments that keep them alive.
I went looking the other day for such a moment to share so I could write something funny and lighthearted. Because, well, it’s been a heavy few weeks. What I found in my long list of these moments was a memory God would use to remind me of the verses in Job that’d stood out to me earlier this past week. I laughed, and I was encouraged. I love how sovereign He is like that.
At the same time, I’ve been trying to figure out what this blog really has to offer anyone…why would anybody want to read this? Heaven knows, I’m boring! But who doesn’t love the funny things kids say? And who doesn’t need to hear the encouraging truth of God’s Word? I’m confident I have a deep well of both from which to write, and the beautiful thing is the Holy Spirit is the One who connects the two for me!
So, here we go…Giggles to Glory!
When Graham was five-years-old, he smacked his shin on a desk that was in his brother’s room. And he smacked it HARD. He did not merely cry – he screamed, uncontrollably, for several minutes. Now, my kids are all too familiar with the ever-so-compassionate and consoling words “rub it out” and know that unless they’re being kidnapped, screaming is completely unnecessary and not allowed, but this instance was an exception to both. With a large gash that immediately bruised and caused swelling in his leg, I comforted Graham the best I could, but there really wasn’t anything I could do to make it better. (Rubbing it out was not going to work!) He asked for a band-aid, but seeing how all the blood was under the skin and it wasn’t actually bleeding, I told him it didn’t need one.
“It’s just going to be sore for a few days, bud. I’m sorry,” I said.
“A FEW DAYS?!?!?! I can’t cry like this for a few days!!!”
Anyone else? Anyone else feel like the weight of your pain, the length of your waiting, the tension of your uncertain future, the never-ending storm, is just not sustainable? When life hurts, there’s nothing to make it better, and all you can do is endure, do you think, I can’t keep crying like this??!?! At the very least, I don’t want to.
While there’s an abundance to learn from in the book of Job, recently when I finished reading through it, I caught something different this time. A good reminder from a simple phrase.
In the last few chapters, what God speaks is profound. His words change our perspective on any and all our circumstances. Yet what made me pause and stop reading twice was where He was speaking from…
Job 38:1 says, “Then the LORD spoke to Job out of the storm.” And again, in Job 39:6, “Then the LORD spoke to Job out of the storm…”
Out of the storm.
You cannot speak out of something unless you’re in it. God was not speaking to Job at a distance from the storm. The author doesn’t say He joined the storm and then started speaking. No. He spoke out of the storm. Meaning, God was in the storm with Job the whole time! He was there for every tear, in every moment of waiting, in every ounce of suffering. And He’s here, in each and every storm, with you and me.
It might hurt a lot right now. It might seem unbearable. To my dear friend, you know who you are, I see you and your pain. More importantly, God sees you and holds all your tears. He is sovereign, and He’s in the storm with you. He is Immanuel, God with us (Matthew 1:23).
