thunder

This morning I found myself in an interesting position. I have the freedom to work from home, which is an amazing blessing. It provides me those unique moments where I need to step away from the world for a few moments and really gain perspective about what I'm doing, what needs to be done, and it offers me the quiet that is sometimes necessary to really think about things. So when I typed this, the only things I heard were the "click, click, clicks" of the keyboard as I type, and the hum of the heater that is also located downstairs in the basement with me.

I began my morning by watching two videos by Louie Giglio talking about how very big our God is, and how so very small I really am. It's a good perspective to gain. It's so easy... especially for me, being an only child to forget that the world definitely does not revolve around me. The fact of the matter is, I'm not even a dimple on the golf ball of earth, and yet, somehow this offers me a sense of peace and serenity, the likes of which I've not really experienced before. I like knowing, or not knowing rather, that God is so big that the earth is nothing more than a dust speck suspended in a beam of sunlight, and yet he's also so big that he holds me (and all of creation) in the palm of his hand.

Confession time: sometimes when I'm feeling really sad, or the darkness of my pain has enveloped me so much that I've lost perspective of things, I like to picture myself crawling up into God's lap and just laying there in his presence. Neither one of us says much, but I'm there, and inevitably I know that everything will be okay. Well, this morning, while watching these videos about how very expansive God is, I got a new picture. One, that in some ways offered me a greater sense of comfort. God was so very big, that in this picture, I'm still laying in his lap, but I barely reach across his thigh, and as I look over, I see hundreds of thousands of other people laying in his lap, and in his presence as well. It was a nice reminder, that I'm not the only one who needs God, and I'm surely not the only one who enjoys and needs to find myself in his presence on a regular basis.

So, what does this have to do with thunder??? Well... this week, I'm preparing a lesson about Christmas, believe it or not. And we're using these "YouthWalk" journals and the first lesson in this "Christmas devotional" is called Thunder: The God Whose Majesty Makes our Knees Bend in Worship. And as I'm reading through day one I come across this scripture-

"On the third day at daybreak, there were loud claps of thunder, flashes of lightning, a thick cloud covering the mountain, and an ear-piercing trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp shuddered in fear. Moses led the people out of the camp to meet God. They stood at attention at the base of the mountain. Mount Sinai was all smoke because God had come down on it as fire. Smoke poured from it like smoke from a furnace. The whole mountain shuddered in huge spasms. The trumpet blasts grew louder and louder. Moses spoke and God answered in thunder." PS- this is from The Message, so it might look a little different in your Bible. But still...

Now, there were a couple of thoughts that came to my mind when I read this. The very first thought took me to a dear friend of mine. She is terrified of thunderstorms. They cause a level of anxiety in her that just really stresses her out, causes her to not sleep very well, and in general it's just a very difficult experience for her. But when I read these verses, I hear hope. "Moses spoke, and God answered in thunder." That's how God answered Moses... was with THUNDER!! Now, thunderstorms don't necessarily scare me, but I will admit, that at times, especially when the lightning is close, and the thunder rips off a huge BOOM, I jump, I'm startled, it might catch me off guard. But then I think, isn't that how the voice of God should be? The creator of the world, and me, has something to say, and sometimes, he needs to get my attention, and break out his "big voice".

This brings me to my second thought- When God was dealing with Elijah in 1 Kings, there were a lot of things happening, fire, wind, earthquakes, but God wasn't in any of those things. Unlike in Exodus, when he was causing all of those things, and he spoke in THUNDER. But you know, to me, it's not contradictory. It speaks to the character of my God. Elijah was at a really difficult place in his life. He was depressed, asking God to just kill him off and be done with it, and I'm not sure Thunder would have been the best way to communicate to him. But in Exodus, and with Moses, God is pumped! This is right after God has delivered his people from the Egyptians, and Israel's getting kind of whiny and losing sight of what exactly has happened here. And so God is using some drastic measures to get their attention. HELLO!!!! I'M GOD!!!! I JUST SAVED YOU FROM EGYPT, AND SLAVERY!!!! GIVE ME SOME CREDIT HERE, I'M NOT JUST GOING TO LEAVE YOU TO DIE IN THE DESERT AFTER ALL WE'VE BEEN THROUGH!!!!

So that's him... sometimes he uses the crazy circumstances of life, the winds, and fires, and earthquakes to say, or more appropriately whisper... "I'm still here, I never left, sometimes things get a little crazy, and a little hairy, but I need you to trust that I'm still in control, and I'm not going to leave you." But then, sometimes, he throws a party, complete with strobe lights, and he shouts, because he needs to get our attention. So, maybe the next time you find yourself in a thunderstorm, whether you're typically scared of them or not, you might find yourself sitting up a little straighter, maybe mute the TV, or put down the book, and find out why God's trying to get your attention and what exactly God's trying to say to you.