Shrouded in Mystery

The rain-drenched newscaster pulls down the hood of his navy “slicker” (as they say in New England) in a feeble attempt to fight the wind. Frantically flailing palm fronds whip back and forth against the pelting storm. Crashing waves driven by the wind’s power, batter everything in its wake. Regardless of anything else taking place last week, we were drawn to the weather channel’s report on the progressing onslaught of Hurricane Dorian.

And regardless of the newscaster’s report, none missed the underlying reality that we spend so many hours of our days working so hard to ignore…life is unpredictable. Ultimately…we are not in control.

The most comprehensive research and scientific information gathering cannot predict the wind or its direction with infallible accuracy. Even an educated guess merely disguises the ultimate truth. Only One greater than ourselves is in control and He is ruler of all. We are told, “Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. He said:

“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?

On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone—
while the morning stars sang together
and all the angels shouted for joy?

“Who shut up the sea behind doors
when it burst forth from the womb,
when I made the clouds its garment
and wrapped it in thick darkness,
when I fixed limits for it
and set its doors and bars in place,
when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther;
here is where your proud waves halt’?…

“Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea
or walked in the recesses of the deep?
Have the gates of death been shown to you?
Have you seen the gates of the deepest darkness?
Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?
Tell me, if you know all this.

“What is the way to the abode of light?
And where does darkness reside?
Can you take them to their places?
Do you know the paths to their dwellings?…

Have you entered the storehouses of the snow
or seen the storehouses of the hail,
which I reserve for times of trouble,
for days of war and battle?

What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed,
or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth?
Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain,
and a path for the thunderstorm,
to water a land where no one lives,
an uninhabited desert,
to satisfy a desolate wasteland
and make it sprout with grass?
Does the rain have a father?
Who fathers the drops of dew?

From whose womb comes the ice?
Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens
when the waters become hard as stone,
when the surface of the deep is frozen?…

Can you raise your voice to the clouds
and cover yourself with a flood of water?
Do you send the lightning bolts on their way?
Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?…
Who has the wisdom to count the clouds?
Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens
when the dust becomes hard
and the clods of earth stick together?”

 

I remember the words of a Seminary student to his professor. “I’ve learned the true Four Spiritual Laws,” the student reported. “Here they are—1. God is God. 2. He is in Control. 3. I am not. 4. Repent.”

So how do we respond to this truth whispered in our soul at the most unexpected moments? What do we do when the circumstances of life tear and unravel our carefully orchestrated plans?

We have a choice. We either give into despair and hopelessness or turn to the One who rules both wind and rain, sun and moon. We recognize that life is a mystery. So often we do not understand. And the world in which we live is broken, a far cry from the world our Creator first designed, yet one in which He provides refuge, comfort and peace. Peace in our soul provided through faith in His Son Jesus in the midst of the storm.

So we can repent. We can turn from the belief that somehow we are in charge. We can acknowledge the truth that He is God and we are not. And then realize that our lives are in His hands…hands of love and compassion, caring and kindness that originally created our world perfectly and without sin or brokenness yet hands now constantly dealing with the broken result of our rebellion and sin. 

With Job we can humble ourselves and say, “I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted…My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you…”and in placing our faith in His Son we can experience His promise of peace in the midst of the storm.