When Clouds Roll In

It’s been a hard few weeks.

I resorted to seeing if my kids wanted to write a blog post for me this weekend as I’ve been running on fumes when it comes to words.  Their posts were about two sentences long, so I figured I’d better sit down and make an attempt.

We’ve had major life upheaval.   Probably the biggest of our nearly 10 year marriage.

Add to the big earthquake the little ones that inevitably come and feel far greater given the valley of your perspective: a broken phone, sickness (the icky kind with scary high fever) now on its SECOND round through the kids, travel, an uncharacteristically chaotic week…

When the low clouds and two days of unbroken rain moved in yesterday morning, it felt like an outward reflection of my inward state.

Physical and emotional exhaustion.  Sadness.  Restlessness.  Uncertainty.

It’s like someone pushed the pause button on our lives (and the city’s), and we had two days to start processing.  Everything from parties to soccer games were cancelled, and our family of five sat indoors with nothing but blocks of time.

We cleaned rooms.

We played Battleship.

We read books.

We watched t.v.

I cooked hearty comfort food like jambalaya with rice and chicken chili with cornbread.

The gray skies and low clouds pushed us inward and pressed us together.

I’ve always heard crisis pulls you apart or pushes you together.  God gratefully is pushing us.  We’re all leaning in to each other and into Him.

I stared out at the clouds during the day and listened to the pinging of rain on the roof at night.

The clouds and storms can scatter you.  But they don’t have to.  Even if they do, for a while, there’s a promise we’ll be brought back into our own land. 

Whatever that land is for you.  It might be actual land.  Or it could be the promise of a better tomorrow you are clinging to in the storm.

Don’t let the storm deceive you – the promise of restoration will be fulfilled.  Don’t let circumstances divide you.  Press into Him.  And press into those you love.

I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness… I will bring them into their own land.  Ezekiel 34