I casually grabbed my backpack, put some things in it to avoid boredom and headed next door, meanwhile I began to think about something. I used to be deathly afraid of storms. I would bawl at the sound of thunder, the sight of lightning, or the slightest wind with rain. I was terrified of tornadoes.
One summer I was working for my uncle, scrapping the paint off of the house he rents out and then priming and painting it (that sucks haha, takes wayyyy too long) And while working for him I would stay at their house, and one day there was a big thunderstorm with tornado warnings. I didn't like that news. I started to freak out a bit and confessed my fear to my uncle. His only response was "why?". I think I responded with something like "I'm afraid to get hurt" or something along those lines. And all he said was "whats the worst that can happen? you die? so what what's death in the grand scheme of things" or something along those lines. And it got me thinking. What is so fearful about death? Jesus promises us eternal life with him! How awesome is that! If I were to die, I get to be with Jesus! After pondering over that for a while, my fears began to subside.
Something that also helped me along the way was the story of the storm when Jesus and the disciples were in the boat. (Mark 4:35-41) The disciples were terrified as the storm came up. Jesus was asleep and they woke him. Jesus wakes up, tells the storm to pipe down and then says to the disciples ""Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?" This really hit me.
First off Jesus shows amazing power here! Look at the power of God, even the wind and the waves obey! Mother nature's got nothing against her creator! But most important is faith. If we put our trust in Jesus to protect us, he will not let us down. Sure things may go wrong, we will sometimes be hurt, we may experience loss of possessions from things like tornadoes and other natural disasters, but in the long run God works things out for the good of those that love him. This passage made me realize i need to have faith in Jesus during the storms in my life (both the metaphorical and the literal)
Now, years later, I can appreciate thunderstorms in their awesomeness! Today there were tornado warnings up the wazoo but I wasn't shaken a bit! I even walked outside down the driveway to check out how the sky looked! A few years ago I would be huddled in a corned of my uncles dirty basement next to the potatoes hahaha.
After the storm passed I went outside and there was a HUGE rainbow. Not only that but it appeared that both ends of the rainbow were in our field. Upon closer look, I noticed that the rainbow was actually a double rainbow, one right on top of the other! How cool that after what used to be my biggest fear, god gives me a glimpse of his eternal promise to never flood the earth again. God sure makes me smile!
I strapped on my sandals, got an umbrella and my camera and trekked through the soaking wet hay of our fields to find it filled with daisies! (i think they were daisies haha) in attempt to get a picture of the rainbow. Unfortunately, by the time i got out there the rainbow was kind of faint so I didn't get a great pic of it, but the flowers were a lot easier to capture (although I'm no photographer haha) =]
<>< ♥ ♰ God Bless
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