God of the winds and the rain, the snow and the sunshine

So here I am. In a very different place to yesterday. Still finding a way to trust the God of the universe. Here’s what I put on Facebook earlier –

When I said goodbye to my Dad last night, I had no idea it would be the last goodbye. As I was journeying home, he was on a journey too. I left him more peaceful than he had been in some time. We’d had a good day sorting out lots of questions and confusions and anxieties. I left him in a good place. He is now in the very best place. Know how much he will be missed by so many, because he has influenced so many lives. God’s inexplicable timing, but he is in God’s hands. As we all are. ‘Underneath are the everlasting arms’.

Certainly inexplicable timing. Because how can something that we have been expecting for so long take us by surprise? And how can something that we know is the best thing of all for our precious Dad feel so sad? I was with Dad all day yesterday. I didn’t see it coming. I don’t think I would have done it any differently if I had. We had many difficult conversations yesterday where I had no answers and had to trust that God knew best. Trust in the God of the universe. The God of the wind and the rain. The God of the inexplicable.

The God of the weather. Extreme weather at that. Let’s continue with this beautiful poem –

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 bind the chains of the Pleiades?
Can you loosen Orion’s belt?
Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons
or lead out the Bear with its cubs?
Do you know the laws of the heavens?
Can you set up God’s dominion over the earth?
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 gives the ibis wisdom
or gives the rooster understanding?
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?  Job 38:22-38

As a human, what can we actually know? What can we actually control? What do we really understand?

We consider the snow and we marvel. Children’s eyes light up as they rush outside to make snow angels. Snowflakes transform the landscape into something magical and wonderful. And yet the snow can stop us in our tracks. Bring the world to a silent standstill.

We consider the hail and we marvel. Hailstones clatter to the ground. Huge spheres of ice sometimes seemingly coming out of nowhere. Children’s eyes widen in awe.

We consider the lightning and we marvel as it lights up the sky.

We consider the strong winds and we marvel at the devastation they can cause.

We consider the torrents of rain and we marvel at the new life that they bring to parched land.

And where does it all come from? The rain, the dew, the ice, the frost? Who created them all? Who imagined them all and brought them all into being?

Consider the constellations. The stars in all their glory. Mind-blowing, isn’t it? How and why the stars were scattered across space just as they are.

We know when we need it to rain, but we cannot control when it rains. We can perform all the rain dances in the world, but we cannot control the rain.

We know that the sunshine brings life, but we cannot command the sun to shine, however hard we try. However much we wish it.

This is all beyond us. Beyond our strength. Beyond our understanding. Beyond our control.

And that’s OK. That’s how it’s meant to be.

God has the strength. God has the understanding. God has the control.

We just need to find a way to trust in the God of the winds and rain.

When I opened the front door to send Jordan off to school this morning, the sun was shining brightly. I said without thinking ‘That’s Grandad shining down on us this morning’. Of course I didn’t really believe that. It was a childlike thing to say. But in that moment, it felt true. It felt reassuring for both of us. The sun was welcome. I don’t know how true it is. Not very, I suspect. I don’t need to know. I just want to keep trusting the God of the sunshine.