I can predict the weather. Granted I do confer with an app on my phone but between us we are frequently spot on. Yesterday I expected that the balmy morning would turn wet, and pulled the large tarp over the coop yard to keep my girls dry. Perhaps they cocked their heads in confusion, since there were no raindrops at the time. But I knew what was coming. It kept them out of the mud.

Weeks before snow takes over the land, I will fetch a bale of straw from the feed mill, and bolster up the bedding in their dormitories. I know from experience that they will need it when the shrill winds blow, and I am behind the closed door of my cozy home. The hens don't notice, but I often peer at them out the window. Because I care. 

God is attentive too. He is fully cognizant of the tempests in our future. There are a few couples I am holding in prayer that are feeling buffeted by bitter winds. There is no question that God has spent the last few years augmenting their marital insulation. Maybe He masterminded an especially sweet Christmas last December, or has kept their physical health on an even keel. Perhaps he stoked them up with warm memories at a family wedding last June, where the smiles outnumbered the stony faces a hundred to one.

Possibly they are feeling abandoned, as if their Keeper has left them to face the storms alone.

But His eyes are on them still.