My husband and I are leaving in a few days to go on vacation for the next couple of weeks.
The lead-up to the much-hoped-for trip has been bumpy. Work stress. Rescheduled meetings with the construction company building our new home. Discovering that the expensive motion sickness medication I was prescribed is actually going to cause me more trouble in terms of side effects than the motion sickness by itself. A thousand little to-dos. And today, on top of it all, a summer storm blew through and briefly knocked out our internet, television, and phone all in one go.
I was irritated and frustrated and stressed.
And then my husband wandered in and flopped down on the couch. “There’s a rainbow outside,” he said offhandedly. And I dashed outside.
There are times when I sit and divine comfort from God through His word, by sifting through verses until one resonates. There are times that I wrestle it out through prayer until I feel better. There are time God provides His peace and I the tangled knot of tensions subsides immediately.
And then there are times like this, when God provides a more direct gift: inexplicable, beautiful, perfectly timed. A clear reassurance written in the sky that calms me to the depths of my soul. A statement of His presence. A reminder: I am right here. I am making beautiful things. My covenants depend only on my grace. I am here. I am here always.
I wouldn’t have seen it if not for the storm.
The rainbow is not going to pack my bags for me. It is not going to drive to the pharmacy and pick up Bonine. It is not going to talk to the causes of my husband’s work stress and encourage them to dial it back a few notches. But it doesn’t have to. As I stood on my rain-socked porch feeling the damp sink into my socks, I got it.
God is right here. And where He is, so should my perspective be also. God is what I should be looking at. Because when you are standing there as I was, thrilled and snapping photos while your neighbors side-eye you from below, it hits you: nothing much else matters. Beside Him, all of our stresses and irritations and frustrations seem exactly like what they are: minor, and temporary, and small in the light of eternity.
Nothing else matters. What joy there is when we can shift our focus!
And sometimes only the storm will allow us to do it.
Friends, whenever your storms hit, large or small, I hope you are able to get a glimpse of the rainbow, too.
As of right now, I’m on vacation! But I have scheduled posts to publish while I’m away, so do drop by. Feel free to comment and I will happily get back to you when I return. In the meantime, I’d appreciate all your prayers for travel mercies. God bless you with His presence!
Samaritan's Song 