Broken Arrow, Oklahoma became our home in January of 2011, it also became the bulls eye of the strongest Blizzard in recent history this past week, and it is not over yet, we have more snow called for in the forecast. We have spent time together inside, keeping in touch with loved ones in Missouri and monitoring Facebook. Cars and trucks were abandoned on a closed down I 44 from Tulsa to Springfield, Missouri, and it felt strange that even if we wanted to get back to where we had lived for years we could not get there with the main interstate closed down for days.
Storms have a way of putting us on alert, the warnings ring out, our senses are conditioned to pay attention and to make sure you are prepared to seek shelter, and to make sure you have taken certain precautions in order to protect yourself and your family. We immediately went to the store to stock up on basic food and supplies gearing up to be trapped for a few days, and it was there as I looked at some empty shelves, that I realized how we are truly blessed to live in a time when we have big huge markets to go to, can you imagine how our ancestors that coped with storms like this where they were trapped for days and made due with what was available and stored and stocked up, today we panic if we think we will not be able to get to the store for 3 or 4 days.
Storms have this way of measuring us giving us a barometer of where we may be in our faith, we don't have to be in a boat and feel the waves all of sudden come up on us any more, no we now have the capability of viewing Doppler radar and seeing the gathering clouds coming in over the Rockies from space so that we can really build up our fear days before so that it has plenty of time to really set in our hearts and give us even more time to worry, to let fear come over you, to cause you to rush to the store and buy 3 carts full of groceries just in case you have to go 4 days without getting to the store.
Just like the 12 disciples waking up a sleeping Jesus, telling Him it was storming, we hit our panic button, we start thinking about what we can do to help ourselves in this situation which assumes we have some sort of control when the storms of life can come across but every once in awhile the size of the storm is so epic that you realize that there is only Christ who has control, we can shovel, we can stock up, run to the store and buy groceries, but the storm hits and God reminds us that He holds our life and has a plan that He is bringing to fulfillment. The night in the boat, the storm came, the disciples panic, the Lord is sleeping, they wake Him, and then He calms the sea and quiets the storm. Many of us who are familiar with the ending of this story read over it and we miss the purpose, we jump to the end because we anticipate it, Jesus stopped the storm He CALMED the sea, in doing so the purpose of the storm is revealed, more importantly He was revealed to them, what an amazing experience to draw on, to live through to witness and to rely on. Can you imagine the impact on their faith, living through that, seeing Christ calm the storm, these were the men that would carry on to establish the church after He was crucified, they would give testimony to who He was, they would face more storms in their life to come with the experience of knowing the one who with one command they saw him calm the sea.
God is still in control today, in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, the epic Blizzard of 2011 has made its place in history even as the drifts are still at my front door about 2 feet high, I am reminded that no matter how deep the snow will drift or the winds will blow, God is in control, and has a plan here in Oklahoma, for each person to come to know Him, and have a relationship with Him.
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