Getting ready for the storm

On Saturday this past week, we knew that a storm was coming through.  It wasn't coming till later in the evening.  We would have time to lead the youth group and get home before any danger.  From what I understood, it would be rain in the evening and then snow in the early hours of the morning. 

That did NOT sound like a good combination to me.  I imagined icy roads and slippery sidewalks for Sunday church.  We were planning on having company for lunch after church - was this going to cancel it?

So yesterday, we started preparing for the storm.  We heat with wood, so we hurried to fill the wood room with wood.  Waterman ran the splitter while Bugaboo and Jules helped me with throwing wood through the basement window. 

We filled the room with as much wood as we could.  As I hurried to get the room filled and prepare for a storm.  I was thinking ahead to dealing with snow-covered wood, and days ahead when it wouldn't be nice out, days when the wood room would be empty and we'd have to be doing this in the cold.  I started getting rather frantic and called to the kids to hurry up, move faster, we need to get this all done. 

They just looked at me with their eyes big.  I could see the questions in their minds.  "Why hurry?  What's the big deal?  We're outside in our shirt sleeves because it's so nice out. Why are you getting all shook up?"

And then I realized.  They aren't worried about the storm.  They have no care for it.  They WILL - maybe - be worried when the storm is here, but it's not here and they aren't worrying.  We've been being faithful all week with the wood - doing some every day. 

So it is with life.  I worry and fret about things that may never happen.  Will I get cancer like my mom and her mom did?  Will I start getting sick at forty?  I start preparing for calamities before they are here.   I want to be more like my children.  When the storm is here, I will have the grace for it.  God never promises grace in advance of calamity, only during the storm.  

I have no need to be fearful or frantic.  My Father can calm storms if He wishes, but if He chooses not to, I know He'll be with me through it.  I can bank on that promise.

Daughter of the One who calms storms,
Steph