A Wandering Thought
HURRICANE SEASON awakes from hibernation agitated and eager to prove itself during the months of August through October. Every hurricane that forms in the Atlantic Ocean desires to live up to its purpose and name. During a three month span, America is at the mercy of nature’s most destructive element! The rain and wind and evacuation plans are expected, but so are the object lessons Ms. Nature has prepared for us.
For centuries, the Gulf of Mexico has hurled hurricanes at New Orleans. We can assume that, like everything else in nature, New Orleans should have developed an evolutionary trait of resistance to overcome those troubled waters. Yet, season after season we are continually shocked and offended that nature reveals itself as an enemy. One of the most profound lessons came to me while on a walk after a tropical storm(the weakest category of hurricane). A tree I’ve known all my life was violently uprooted. The tentacles of its roots now reach for the sky and it lies naked, exposed to the air and uncovered by soil; and, its glorious head of green leaves lay low and humble like grass. Not even wood-chippers could conceal the carnage, for this tree was uprooted with no mercy… or, depending on how you look at it, it was uprooted with no resistance.
The object lesson is simple yet sober. A consistent force will eventually uproot even the wisest, strongest tree. There are constant tests that the LORD gives to us in hopes that our roots will sink further in and deeper down. While, our only enemy, the Devil desires to use His test to uproot us. (For what He means for our good, he means for our bad.) Unless we learn the evolutionary traits of prayer, faith, and community which our ancestors left for us in the Book, the things we expect will be the things that uproots us.
“Indeed, how can people avoid what they don’t know is going to happen?”
