In which I describe a storm.

Current Tunes: Misty Edwards
Current Plans: R&R (Including reading Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier)
Current Excitement: Moving in a month!

Wow. SO I know I neglected blogging. Every time I wanted to sit down and blog about something going on in my life, I just got lethargic and opted to do something else instead. That, and I've really had only a couple hours of spare time in the past many moons.

But I felt that today was God's gift to me, and I'd like to share about it with you invisible souls.

I woke up inexplicably REALLY early. And was AWAKE. So then I had a nice shower and reading in bed time. Some friends of mine who I haven't seen in awhile were at church, and afterwards we went to Wendy's, which was fabulous. Then I came home and had like a 45 minute nap, which was perfect, because it left me refreshed rather than groggy. I woke up to the sound of booming, house-shaking thunder. And I felt GOOD. Just a nice, happy feeling.

So then I went to my friend's grad party. And she lives in Woodbury. This would be awesome, except that it was POURING. And there was road construction/detours. And I couldn't see the road or the other cars. I was freaking out. It took me 40 minutes to get there, and traffic was busy and barely moving. And I had no idea where I was going, but by the grace of God I arrived safe and sound to spend an hour or so with my dear friend at her party, eating carrots. Yummy. I was still in a good mood, but I was kind of dreading the drive home due to scary weather.

However, as I was leaving the party, I saw this gorgeous, thick rainbow low in the sky. I about peed my pants. Because I love rainbows. And that just got me thinking about how beautiful God's creation is, and how great of an artist our Creator is. So I keep driving, west on 94. And the sky is just unspeakably fantastic. Northish, over St. Paul, there is this WALL of grey clouds. You can tell it's raining hard over there. But around the grey clouds, there's spots of fluffy white and pale blue. It's like God took His thumb and smudged a splotch of grey, smearing it down to the landscape. I was breathless just viewing it. The grey clouds were so ... dark, and rolly, and powerful looking. And in my head I was like, this calls for Misty Edwards. So I pop in the cd as I'm merging on to 35E. And if you haven't heard the song before, the lyrics are pretty simple:
My soul longs for You (2X)
Nothing else will do (2X) (repeat several times)
I believe you will come like the rain. (repeat a lot)
So, come like the rain. (also repeat a lot)

And so there I am, driving through the rain and the storm clouds, and I'm just praising God through the storm, literally. I can't explain it. The vast power of the sky just flattened me in its beauty and glory. I also felt some kind of personal connection to the sky, like God was painting it all just for me. It felt intimate, the sky.

So, then, the song gets to a point where Misty sings, "Hallelujah, hallelujah, You make all things new, all things new" over and over again. And just as the song reaches that point, the freeway bursts out of cloud cover into this GLORIOUS daylight! Pale blue skies with fluffy, rolling white clouds. And this liquid gold sunlight is just washing over me. I started tearing up, honestly, it was so perfect. After driving through such wicked weather all afternoon, seeing this perfect, still weather was a blessing. I could still see the black and grey clouds in my mirrors, thundering and swirling. But all that was ahead was this brilliant day. God filled me with this love so big I almost couldn't stand it.

GOD MAKES ALL THINGS NEW.

After a wretched storm, although beautiful in its merciless power, God made the day new. He renewed the sunlight's strength, gave him back his dominance in the sky. The sun won the day.

God does that in our lives, my loves. He brings us through this awful times of anguish and calamity. He not only brings us to them, He brings us THROUGH these times. Through- that means we make it to the other side. Always. Earlier today, driving to the party in the heavy rain, I was so terrified. I thought I would lose control or hit a car I couldn't see through my windshield. But God brought me safely to the party, and He rewarded me with a glorious vista on the way home. God is good, He is so, so good Beloved.

I'm gonna be honest here- My flame's been flickering. I've been working a lot, and I've been feeling discouraged about how little time I'll have with friends and family before I leave (the date's August 8th, mark your calendars!). I've been worrying about buying stuff for my new dwelling place, worrying about not having enough time, worrying about missing people, worrying about money, worrying about moving out and living without my mom to answer all of my stupid questions. Worrying. Faltering, fretting, stressing, and retreating.

But God makes all things new. Miraculously, He's given me this whole evening to do with as I please. He's renewing my strength on this Sabbath to get through the coming week of work, work, and more work. I need His renewal every morning, but loves, He'll do it. He delights to be our strength.

Psalm 27, v 13-14 "I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD."

Cheerio, mates. See you around!