By virtue of having passed Meteorology 101 in college to help fulfill my dreaded science requirements, I consider myself quite the “armchair” weather woman. Science and I have not really been on speaking terms since I had to dissect a stinky frog in 9th-grade biology, but I find the wonders of weather…dare I say it?…almost interesting.
My science-guy husband loves to read about quantum physics, supernovas, black holes, and other nerdy topics that make my cerebrum want to explode. I’m sure it’s important, but I’m equally sure my pea brain wasn’t built to figure it out. But cold fronts, tornadoes and juicy tropical depressions are scientific phenomena I can almost comprehend.
The existence of black holes (with the possible exception of my son’s bedroom) doesn’t really matter to me, but meteorology is a science that has actually proven useful in my everyday life. Growing up in Indiana, I checked weather forecasts almost daily to see if I was going to freeze my keister off or bake to a crispy crunch on the tennis courts, or to anticipate whether a snow day might rescue me from an algebra test.
And even though my routine now remains pretty much the same, rain or shine, I still find myself frequently tuning in to the Weather Channel.
Okay, maybe it is a bit weird for me to know the names of most of the Weather Channel announcers, but almost everybody is at least a little bit interested in the weather. It’s a universal topic of conversation.
I was in a store recently and a customer was talking with the sales clerk. A severe storm was predicted to blow in that afternoon so the sales lady asked the guy, “When’s the weather coming?”
I loved his glib answer: “It’s been here all day.”
His witty response made me chuckle, and later, pause to ponder.
The man was right: The weather had been there all day, as it always is. We just didn’t notice it because it wasn’t particularly good or bad. We were all waiting for the “real weather” to come.
I thought about how often we treat God the same way.
He’s always there, but we so often ignore Him as we focus on “real life” and anticipate the next big event in our lives, whatever that may be. When things are going great, we chalk it up to good luck or good “karma” or good vibes. On all the routine, mundane days, it’s sadly easy to keep God in the pantry and forget about Him.
I’m pretty sure He doesn’t like it in there.
God created us to relate to Him on a regular, intimate basis. He doesn’t just occasionally blow in like a tropical storm or an arctic blast – He’s there all the time, like the air we breathe.
Sometimes we wonder, “When’s God going to show up in my life…in this world…in my pain?”
The answer: He’s been here all along. He’s simply, quietly waiting for us to notice, to turn to Him, to embrace Him and to allow Him to embrace us.
We want bells, whistles, flashing lights and fireworks, when more often God comes with whispers.
Let’s look. Listen. Open our hearts. His wind is blowing now, His rain is falling all around us– can we feel it?
“‘Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?’ declares the LORD. ‘Do not I fill heaven and earth?’ declares the LORD.” (Jeremiah 23:23)