Sunday thoughts: Red Weather Warning

 

Image Credit: StockSnap | Pixabay

When I woke up on Friday the day seemed bright and fine, and I learnt that in view of the weather warnings of storm Eunice that was about to hit, my son's nursery had decided not to open for the day.  Oh really, I thought to myself, it's only a bit of wind.  It was only when I went out to get some supplies that I realised just how strong the wind was - strong enough to blow over my two-year old's pushchair with him in it (luckily I caught the pushchair before the wind could complete this action!).  We are lucky that we were not too personally affected, but storm Eunice killed 16 people across Europe, tore roofs off buildings, toppled a church spire and lead to the downfall of many mighty trees - damaging people, buildings and property in the process.  Later that day, when my son and I were home from shopping, a huge tree fell across one of the roads we had driven along.

Our transatlantic friends always laugh that the UK grinds to halt with a few inches of snow, but we are rarely affected by this level of wind.  I wasn't even alive when the great storm of 1987 hit, but I still know of it - it was that exceptional.  But when we're stopped because of a few inches of snow, it does not feel like a right reaction to a major weather event, but just a slightly pathetic lack of adaption to something that seems quite soft and harmless (we rarely even get enough to build a snowman!).  But hurricanes, volcanoes, earthquakes, tidal waves and tornadoes - we very rarely see anything like that.  And for the majority, our houses are solidly built, we feel safe.  And maybe some of us (...me...) are a little complacent.  We think we have the science and technology to keep us safe, that storms won't affect us, that we can just go about our daily lives.

Many cultures have looked at the more dramatic movements of our earth - from volcanoes to storms, and naturally supposed them to be the work of gods - or even gods themselves.  People have long looked not to technology and assets to keep them safe, but to prayer.  When Jesus' friends were caught in a storm in the middle of the sea, they didn't think it's just a bit of wind.  As far as they were concerned, no one or nothing could save them - hence their amazement when Jesus calmed the storm - "even the wind and waves obey him" (Mark 4:35-41).

We spend so much time acting as gods over our own little kingdoms - whatever part of our lives that we feel in control of: be it our houses, our jobs, our behaviour or bodies - that we forget the immeasurably larger universe - and the work of physics: heat, pressure, moisture - that cause these huge phenomena.  And when we forget the majesty, power and sometimes danger, of the natural world, we haven't a hope of appreciating the majesty and power of the God who rules it.   We've turned God in to a kindly Father Christmas figure because we feel no need for anyone more powerful in whom to put our trust.  We just want someone kind to tell us we've been good boys and girls when we need our egos stroked.  But Isaiah would say to us:

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand
   and marked off the heavens with a span,
   enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure
and weighed the mountains in scales
   and the hills in a balance?
(Isaiah 40:12)

For when we realise this, we can say: 

Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
  will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
  my God, in whom I trust.”
(Psalm 91:1-2)

The Covid-19 pandemic reminded us that there are no guarantees that life will go on as expected, and storm Eunice was a further reminder.  Again, we were advised to stop - to not go out.  Our lives are again curtailed by something we do not know.  We are no longer masters over all creation - bending it to our will and feeling free to live our lives in security, going where and when we please.  

Because ultimately, we want to be in charge of this world.  And ultimately, we are not - God is.  And compared to the infinity of God, our lives look like this: 

Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,
   scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,
when he blows on them, and they wither,
   and the tempest carries them off like stubble.
(Isaiah 40:24)

Every time something like this happens, it is God issuing a red weather warning - like the one I scoffed at.  It is a reminder that we are not gods.  We are not in control and that one day we will have none of the things we have now to protect us.  My house proved to be stronger that Storm Eunice, and I am very grateful for that, but there will be a day when it will not protect me.  The social niceties I have learned and some other skills I have enable me to come across as a 'nice' and 'good' person, but I'm fairly sure than in the 'day of the Lord' these will fail.  God reminds us that we are not in ultimate control of our world and prompts us to ask the question: when all things come to an end and all that remains is us and the creator of the universe, - face to face, what will we rely on? 

Wonderfully, the answer to that can be Jesus - in whom we can take refuge.