On the back side of the storm

I've never done this before and won't make it a practice, but today I feel led to double a post on both my blogs. Something tells me the message God gave me last night in the midst of the storm might minister to more than just my girls on Daughters By Design. I think He has a message for all of us, young and old. Be encouraged today in the midst of your storms!

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Spring has long ago sprung, and summer has already begun. But today at my house the spring storms are still in the air.

Last night, the storms were so severe I was in the closet for twenty minutes! The tornado and fire truck sirens howled, and my dog Moo eagerly joined the alarming chorus.

The tops of several of our trees were sheared straight off. Huge limbs lay in abundance around our house in both the front and back yards. As my mother used to say about my room, “It looks like a tornado came through.” And it may have.

When the storms quieted down, Papa Jeff and I were left sitting in the dark without any electricity. So we decided to venture out in the car to see what damage had been done. Fortunately, we saw lots of standing water and broken trees, but no displaced people or broken homes. Many storms are far worse.

As we drove around, I looked at the back side of the ferocious storm that had left its mark in our yard. Surprisingly, I saw a beautiful rainbow. It occurred to me the rainbow wasn’t on the front or in the middle of the storm. It came on its heels, following behind after the intensity of the storm had passed.

In Genesis, God promised Noah he would never again destroy “all flesh” of the earth by a flood, and the rainbow was his sign of this promise. But there is an even bigger message in the rainbow. It reminds us that God is in control of every storm. It is a symbol of his power to limit a storm’s impact, to determine its magnitude and decide its end.

We all face storms and many are of another kind – life storms that move in our direction seemingly out of nowhere. Like rain storms, they are dark and scary. They are beyond our control. They can cause damage and even threaten our lives. We wonder if they will ever end.

When you experience life storms like failure, loss and heartache, I pray today you will always remember God is at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of every storm that comes your way. He is always present and always in control.

Next time you find yourself in a storm, anticipate the rainbow. It will surely come!