A little over two years ago, the kids and I went to West Palm Beach just a week after hurricane Irma hit the area. It was a nail-biter waiting to see if our AirBnB rental that I had reserved months before would be affected by the storm. Or if the flights I had booked would even be operational. Two days before we left, I received confirmation we were good to go!
I hadn’t been to a beach in years! My goal was to spend as much time as possible with toes in the sand and surf pounding in my ears on this trip. I was excited to experience an “over the water” sunrise and got up early to get to the beach in time to see it.
Expectation vs. Reality
As I was driving there, I could see the sky just starting to lighten up—and there were clouds… everywhere. I was bummed. I told God I was hoping to see a perfect sunrise while I was there…no clouds, just water and sky with the sun busting in to claim the day.
When I got my chair out on the beach and surveyed the horizon, I noticed a storm over to the south on the ocean. Great, now that’s going to get in the way too. It was just a messy, sloppy sky, and not what I had in mind.
But as I sat and watched the heavens lighten, the transformation of the sky was stunning. The minutes creeped by, slowly at first. The storm moved to the north—only JUST in time to totally block the sun from view as it peeked above the water. Really? Ugh. This sunrise was just not going the way I wanted it to!
But then gold edged the clouds and the dark clouds became translucent with the light. In just a few short minutes, the storm rained itself out and the dark clouds dissolved into absolutely nothing. POOF! They were gone and I was able to see the sun in full glory. Absolutely amazing. The clouds made the view much more rich and complex than a “perfect” sky could have ever been.
As I was praising God for his majesty, he turned this into a visual aid regarding my life that left me on that beach in tears.
Sunrise Visual Aid
Not only was I wanting a “perfect” sunrise, I was wanting a perfect life as well: easy, with no problems. But that isn’t what He has for me, for any of us. Without storms there is no growth, no overcoming, no pushing for something greater. BUT, He is always there. The sun is always shining even when it storms. His light is always shining, even in midst of messy, sloppy circumstances where you can’t see where you’re going.
In the big picture, these storms are just a little part of the whole horizon of my life. Storms will come and go, but God will use them to grow me to become as big and as strong as each storm was when I come out on the other side. Even in the super storms of life, like Irma, God’s glory is all around, His provision is all around, and He is in control of that storm. In His perfect timing, He will dissolve it all into absolutely nothing (POOF!) when it has served its purpose in my life.
I got up two other mornings to see the sunrise and both were similar to the first, with a storm to the south moving north and lots of clouds. I never got to see what I thought I wanted–a “perfect” sunrise. But man, the effects of those clouds were glorious and the visual aid God gave me were priceless!
Biosphere 2 Visual Aid
While working on my story paintings, I discovered back in the early 90’s, there was special project called Biosphere 2 where scientists created the perfect environment to sustain life. They grew all kinds of things, including food and trees. This environment had the right amount of water and the right about of sun. But an interesting thing happened: the trees didn’t last. They grew quickly but then would topple over after a while.
Puzzled, the scientists investigated further and realized that the environment was “too perfect” and the trees couldn’t grow properly without wind. Without stress, hardship, storms, the trees roots didn’t develop properly. They remained small and shallow. Without storms, they weren’t strong enough to support their growth and ultimately fell over.
Great stories always have hard
Can you see how that corresponds to our lives? When you think of a really good epic story or movie, it’s not all rainbows and unicorns and happily ever after. There’s an antagonist and various levels of thematic elements: there’s hardship, there’s despair, there’s danger. And then there’s overcoming, there’s redemption, there’s restoration. That’s when you get to the end and it’s like “YES!!!”
Your story is no different. What kind of story would you have if nothing bad ever happened to you? What if your faith was never tested? You’d have a safe, easy life, but it would become boring and a waste of what God created us for.
Lovely ones, we aren’t just a sketch quickly drawn on scrap paper. We are a masterpiece, that began with perfect design and purpose covered in promises from huge Almighty creator God. He lovingly, patiently, carefully crafts all of our moments and seasons into a beautiful composition to transform us into his son, Jesus. Some of those moments and seasons will be messy and hard. But how glorious they are in God’s hands who is working them all out for our good and His glory!
