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From lightning and tempest, from earthquake, fire and flood, from plague, pestilence and famine,
Good Lord, Deliver us.
I finally feel thawed out: Winter finally seems to be passing. Every year, we live through plenty of lightning and tempests (a great catchall word for snow storms, tornadoes, ice blizzards and hurricanes). Truly, we have had our share, some worse than others. Wildfires, earthquakes and floods are always on the menu somewhere in the world. Indeed, I’ve been through a lot of storms in my life caused by both Mother and Human Nature. As I sip my coffee in my warm and cozy home, I realize that God has delivered me more times than I can count.
Ever since we left Eden, mankind has struggled by the sweat of our brow to tame the natural world, and true to the promises in Genesis, we have accomplished great things. We can grow food to feed the world, bring light to darkness, travel to far-away places beyond our planet, conquer many diseases and build shelter to weather most storms. We often seem only limited by storms that rage in our own souls. Imagine what a world we would have, what security we could achieve if we could lay aside selfishness, resentment and greed.
Nevertheless, there are things we cannot conquer. We haven’t been able to cork a volcano, unspin a tornado, tame a hurricane or still a quaking earth. We haven’t solved poverty, even in the richest of nations. We haven’t stopped war, even though we have nearly destroyed the world by conflict. Locusts still swarm, pandemics still pop up, and famine can be found somewhere, every day.
Our inability to control the natural world is humbling, as it should be. Although God has given us some mastery over the planet, we are not the owners, we are not in control. The World and we belong to the Lord, and Who I suspect has deflected more asteroids, stopped more plagues, dampened more tsunamis and delivered mankind from more disasters than we will ever know. I am grateful for God’s deliverance’s, yet pray for that new Heaven and new Earth where all violence from man and nature is stilled.
So, until that Glorious Day, Good Lord, Deliver Us from the wildness of this one.
Peace. Phil Parsons
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From Rodger:
Not much to add here, other than acknowledge and accept the reminder this all points to: We aren’t as good as we think, don’t have it all together, and without God’s ceaseless watch over us, would probably make an even BIGGER mess than we’ve already made of practically everything. A couple of images kind of sum up my nod to what Phil says here:
