"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze."
As a child, thunderstorms terrified me. I have vague memories of clinging to my mother as she went around our home shutting all the windows as a storm rolled into our area. My mother said much later that she thought the reason that was so was that while in my crib as a baby a heavy storm suddenly came upon us and my crib was located right below an open window. When she got to me, I had been soaked in the rainwater as well as fully exposed to the sound and fury of the storm. She felt that my fear as a child sprang from that experience.
Writer and speaker Alicia Britt Chole has a completely different memory of such storms. She said that as a small child, whenever a storm would approach, her father would take her onto their front porch and watch it approach together. The closer and more fierce it became, the more tightly and lovingly he would hold her. In that she learned two things. She learned not to fear the storm, and she learned how safe and secure she was in the loving arms of her father. She said, "In life, choosing who I'll spend the storm with makes all the difference."
Writer and speaker Alicia Britt Chole has a completely different memory of such storms. She said that as a small child, whenever a storm would approach, her father would take her onto their front porch and watch it approach together. The closer and more fierce it became, the more tightly and lovingly he would hold her. In that she learned two things. She learned not to fear the storm, and she learned how safe and secure she was in the loving arms of her father. She said, "In life, choosing who I'll spend the storm with makes all the difference."
I have no memory of my being in that crib, but I do know that at least for a few moments, I was alone in that storm. My mother rescued me, but in the time before, I was alone. I think, for me at least, that is what makes all the difference between how Chole looked at the storm and how I did.
Heavy storms will hit our lives. God makes it clear in Isaiah 42:3 that they will. The key is that we will not be alone when they do. If we are His, He will be with us. He will, as did Chole's father, hold us all the more tightly in the storm, protecting, comforting, keeping us safe and secure. Chole, in her own life storms, would choose to not go through them alone. Whether she was aware of their approach, or they suddenly burst upon her, she would choose the company of her Lord and God. He would be her companion. For you and I, who will we choose to spend the storm with? In whose company will we choose to go through it? Chole has learned the power of intimacy with Christ. Have we?
Fear, anxiety, and a hundredfold other destructive emotions and thoughts cannot remain in His Presence. If we are living in His Presence, neither can they remain in us. Chloe learned to not fear the power of an earthly storm while held in the arms of her father. She later learned the same as she lived in the arms of her heavenly Father. May we join her there. He invites us to do so. Storms are coming upon us. For many of us, they're already here. Let us not only claim the promise of Isaiah 43:2, let us live it out. Let us live in deep safety of His loving arms.
Blessings,
Pastor O
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