In my lifetime I have lived in San Francisco, Kansas, and Florida. I have experienced an earthquake, a tornado and a hurricane. The odd thing is that I experienced all three while living in Pennsylvania. I’m a fan of weather. Not sunny weather, but storms of every kind. Just last night, here in Hurricane Alley, northern Indiana, we had hurricane speed winds. It was all I could do to stay inside. We were safe, and like so many storm warnings of the past, the fear was likely more damaging than the thing feared. We saw power at work, but were safe and secure.
Every storm, in the end, is but a shadow of the great storm in the end. A day is coming, even more certain than the arrival of whatever the Weather Channel is hyping today, when I will have to stand before the living God. His perfections will expose my imperfections, His holiness my unholiness. I do not, however, prepare for that day, nor have I any fear. For the storm has already passed. Before He drew me to Himself, before He knit me in my mother’s womb, 2000 years ago the One who calms every earthly storm walked into my storm, taking on His Father’s wrath for my sin. The daytime sky turned black. The ground shook, the winds ripped through Calvary and the cup poured down on Him. I was made safe and secure.
That storm is past. And so I will stand before my heavenly Father, washed, safe, beloved. He will not put my in the cleft of a rock, but will take me in His loving arms. He will tell me I am His beloved son and He will never let me go.
I don’t know what the next great weather event will bring. All the mapping, modeling, tracking and still we do not know the future. I may see the clouds approaching. What I can’t see is the real end. But He who told me not only knows the future but brings it to pass. He can only speak truth, for His Word is the source of reality. He promised He would welcome me. He promised He would keep me. He promised that He would never stop loving me. I am safe in the eye of a hurricane because, because of Jesus, I am the apple of His eye. Behold He gives His beloved rest, right in the midst of the storm.