My daughter is pregnant and due any day! Yay! Total excitement complete with a mother’s jitters. But add to the mix the news that my daughter’s husband has been offered a new job…but his new employer wants him to start a week from today…in a different state….
I have three grown children. Yay! All of them have moved out and are living on their own. But an argument has erupted with forgiveness not yet on the table. And in this season of love, family, and peace on earth, instead of camaraderie, we are a bit broken and sad….
I just reconnected after 29 years, with my roommate from college. Yay! I was so excited—she was one of my best friends (we were just terrible at staying in touch). But in catching-up after so many years, I was stunned to find out that her oldest, just before finishing a tour of duty in Afghanistan sustained an injury that has left him a quadriplegic…and she is his primary care giver. I wanted so badly to go see her, to do something, anything, but I can’t; she’s a 10-hour car ride away… and I need to, I want to, be close by for my daughter when she goes into labor….
And so, like the swirling snow on a windy, blustery day, I’m first swept one way and then the other. Wanting to do something, somewhere, I find that I can’t. Feeling helpless and torn, all of this is out of my hands, out of my control….
I know I’m not alone—so many of my friends are facing far worse things than I am. There are those who are looking at cancer and other disease, those who have failing parents who need them at every turn, some have recently lost loved ones, or some who have sons or daughters, lost at home, or away serving our country. The intensity of the snowstorm seems to grow.
But all of this is not new. Time upon time, the world has been unsettled, a veritable earthquake of events which have turned countless numbers of people’s lives upside down. There is evil beyond comprehension—unspeakable deeds, disease and meanness—all here because sin entered the world long ago. But that’s why Jesus came to the earth—to one day visibly eradicate sin altogether, but until then, if we let Him and ask Him to save us—to give us His peace amid the chaos and storms.
John 14:27 NLT “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.
Is life still going to be a snowstorm? I think so. In fact, I say “You bet-cha.” But if you find you are overwhelmed and need the peace that circumvents your circumstances, that passes all understanding, I invite you to seek Jesus. The storm will still be there and the winds will always howl, but someway, somehow, He takes our hearts and invites us to be still and know that He is in control, that He is God. He loves us so much.
With love,
Kimberly
