"Turn off all the lights to save them for when the power goes out."

 

I remember as a little girl believing that if my parents are there, everything will be fine. I managed to underplay small details like my mother's manic fits, and thin pockets before Christmas. Now that I am the parent I see the holes in that logic. I cannot actually prevent one of the hundred foot tall trees in our yard from collapsing in the 80 mph winds. I hope that the shingles will stay on, and the flooding in the basement will not ruin everything we have stored there. 

 

I keep ruminating on passages about wind and rain, and stored treasure in the Bible. They suggest that when the gales subside and the skies clear we will be all right. 

 

Our marriage is supposed to protect these children. But what about when forces outside of my purview come pounding? Bad things have happened to my kids, things I wish I had prevented. 

 

But when I take a deep breath and listen to the calmer voice , the one that makes Frankenstorm look like a puff of wind, I begin to believe that my Parent truly is the ruler of wind and wave. 

 

Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.

But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall. Matthew 7

 

 

 

Photo by Andy Sullivan

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