Friday, January 25, 2008

Prevailing Winds

Though the fig tree should
not blossom,nor fruit
be on the vines, the produce
of the olive fail and the fields
yield no food...yet I will
rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy
in the God of my salvation.
God, the Lord is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer’s
he makes me tread on my high places.

Habakkuk 3:17a, 18-19

Seventy-eight years after it happened, I see a family lose everything. Standing in the museum, concentrating on the black and white photograph before me, I hear the wail of the wind as it blows away the top soil. For months the clouds refused to produce water. Now there is only howling, dusty, robbing wind. There will be no blossoms come spring.

The wailing winds in my life have stripped me bare. My soul is hungry and thirsty. How long will it take for the bits of fuzzy new growth to show again? I don’t know. But I want to learn how to live in this moment and find my joy in the God who knows when I am flat, face down in the sand.

Slowly my head will lift a bit more each day and there will be a peek of higher levels of rock. One day I will have a flicker of energy to at least stand up and begin walking to those mountains. The Lord will be my strength. And when I have climbed, slowly and cautiously at first, the strength in my legs will increase and finding that I am able to leap and jump over rocks I reach the top. Looking down I will see how far I have come. God will save me.

Jesus, the winds have blown it all away.
I don’t even have enough strength to stand up.
But, I believe you have all the muscle I need.
Today, this is what gives me hope.
Tomorrow is unknown, but I am certain
that your strength will get me to the top.
AMEN.

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