Scrrreeech....crrreeeaaak....scrrrreeech.....crrreeeaaak....
It was dreadfully shrill and impossibly loud. "How can that baby sleep?!?" I wondered. (I can't even sleep through a clock ticking... hence, no clock in my room.) But she was sleeping soundly.
Scrrreeech....crrreeeaaak....scrrrreeech.....crrreeeaaak....
I was amazed the creaky rocker didn't make her cry louder. I wasn't sure how much more I could take! "How could she sleep through that ruckus?" I wondered again. There must be something greater and more powerful than that horrible screeching.
As I looked at the sleeping baby snuggled cozily at her mother's breast, I realized that the comfort of her mother's arms holding her close, the warmth of her mama's body, the scent of her shirt, the love of her embrace, was overcoming any disturbance from the outside.
And I realized we've got that same refuge in our Heavenly Father. When life goes haywire and the din seems unbearable, we've only to snuggle up close to His heart and let Him shield us with his mighty, gentle arms. It sounds a bit like dreamy rhetoric, I know; but believe me, it's practical. The problem is that on our dreary days, it's so hard to reach out our hands to receive God's renewal. It's hard to worship, hard to pray, even harder to open the Bible (at least for me!). It's much easier to ruminate on the problem or avoid it all together.
Today was a down day for me, and even after that inspiring moment with the baby, I took my own little nap swaddled in self-pity. But tonight is all right. God gave me a song, listened to my cry, and gave me something good to chew on from the Word (check out Colossians 3:12-17). I know that each rut in the road is helping me improve my shock-absorbers of faith, so that someday I can cruise through pot holes without flying off my seat...... or "off the handle." :-) Like the baby who could sleep through the terrible racket coming from right under her, our calm in the storm will make people wonder.... "How can he/she possibly have peace through this?!?" And we can tell them...
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| Gently rolling mountains are always a sweet embrace to me. Maybe that's why I like hiking. :-) |
Such practical application. Great peace the Christian can have amongst the cloudy times. It reminds me of words penned by J.R. Miller ~ "There is always something of brightness, one line, at least, in the darkest experience. There always are comforts, no matter how great the sorrow. Every cloud has on it some bit of silver lining. There are hopes, consolations, encouragements, in every experience of grief or loss, and we are to think of these..."
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