It is easy to believe that life overwhelms. The pressures of today, bills of yesterday, and expectations of tomorrow never stop! Relentlessly they chip away at the heart of our souls with an effectiveness that we often try to deny. Life can be tiring! Everything piles up and the future can only be seen through mounds of obstacles and hassles. We are surrounded and it isn’t by those who are on our side.
Spending time in the Redwoods, especially if one does anything in small numbers, brings a totally different sense of life. Unending trees stand silently praising a Creator God who understood that community was more important than individual status. Even with these magnificent examples of nature would not remain if it wasn’t for the network of roots binding their very survival. Quiet streams thread their way, seeking new courses with effortless determination. In a matter of minutes one finds the reality of the streets fading under the assault of this new reality. In the end one wonders, which is real?
In the middle of dreaming through this question nature provided the answer. Flashing of lighting momentarily bathed everything in a white glow followed by a clap of thunder that would have made the drummer in any band proud! Not just one but again and again!
In the quiet music that followed as rain playing on the roof of the RV I knew that you and I are truly surrounded, though not in the way we often believe. The Spirit and angels are always here, working to lift us up to God. It is in the Presence that we belong. This is where God would have us. We have the opportunity to say that we “heard the sound of massed choirs, the sound of a mighty cataract, the sound of strong thunder: ‘Hallelujah! The Master reigns, our God, the Sovereign-Strong! Let us celebrate, let us rejoice, let us give him the glory!’” (Revelation 19.6, 7)
We have the opportunity to be in the middle of God’s band. We determine what surrounds our hearts and souls.
