By Pastor Leah Fintel Krotz, Trinity Lutheran Church, Bruning
As I'm writing this column on Wednesday morning, it's the aftermath of a night time storm. We often sleep right through thunderstorms, despite the blare of the weather radio a couple of rooms away with its ear-splitting alarms and updates on watches and warnings. But for some reason, this time I woke up.
Maybe it was the wind, howling and shaking the house. Or maybe it was Nellie, our Bernese Mountain dog, nervously pacing back and forth by my side of the bed, toenails clicking on the wood floor. But whatever the reason, I woke up to one of the worst wind storms we've had at our place in quite some time.
This morning, before leaving for my church office, I spent some time walking around and cleaning up a bit of the damage. A very large limb off of an elm tree had flown 30 feet or more across the driveway. I couldn't believe it! I said a prayer of thanks that the wind had been out of the north, or that limb might have crashed through a window or our roof instead.
When I turned around, I was even more startled to see that a young apple tree we’d planted a few years ago, probably now nine feet tall and bearing a small crop of harvest apples, was uprooted and lying on its side. The tree had been staked but the wind broke the wire. We're not sure if the wind was that strong or if the tree just had a poor root system.
As I surveyed the storm damage, thankful that it wasn't worse, I realized that the song “Eye of the Storm” was running through my mind. We'd sung it last Sunday during our worship service, and the theme of the entire service had been God's protection through the storms of life.
I thought, as I looked at the blown over apple tree, that many of us are just like that tree. We are strong and proud when things are going well, taking for granted our Heavenly Father's care, and forgetting to thank him for all of our blessings. We often neglect to read his Word, pray to him, or join with our fellow believers to worship and thank him. We don’t feed and nurture our faith, so it's a shallow rooted thing, much like our apple tree.
And then, when the first storms of trouble blow into our lives—money difficulties, illness, family disagreements— we are quick to give up and blame God for not managing things so that we avoid all pain and suffering. We are unprepared for the hardships that come to everyone as a natural part of life in this broken world.
Thankfully, even when we leave him, God doesn't leave us. His love is ever surrounding us, ready to comfort, guide, and protect us—through even the worst storms of life. As the author of Lamentations writes, “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
On this morning after the storm, I thank God that he is always with me, in the eye of the storm.
