Can I just say that my immediate reaction to this week's snow was not a happy one, I mean, I had just spent 4 days sorting clothes, donating the unnecessary and packing away the winter. The closets and drawers are neatly filled with summer gear and warm weather frocks. I was more than a little irritated as I got down on my hands and knees and began to dig through my neatly organized boxes to find long sleeved shirts and long pants. Oh, and don't get me started and having to pull out the snow pants and gloves so the kids could play in the field at school during recess. My organization was being disturbed and I was none to happy about it.
With the kids out the door and sometime before I needed to leave for Bible Study, I plopped myself down at my computer and jumped on to Facebook to see what was happening on this wet, wet day. I smiled as I saw so many share in my distaste for the weather, I mean I know! Right? Having my fill I made my way to the kitchen sink to rinse and load a few dishes in the dishwasher. I looked out the back window at my premium lot with open space behind it, I looked some more, the scrub oak covered with snow, my flowers straining to stay upright under the weight of the wet sloppy mess. That's when it happened... I felt a heaviness start to form in my heart. I was grumbling... much like a group of Israelites I once heard about. God delivers them from years of slavery, parts the Red Sea for them to walk across on dry land so they can escape the pursuit of their enemy and after a couple day of high fives and Praises to God they start grumbling "What about food? What about water? "Why didn't you just leave me in Egypt?"
God blesses me at every single turn, I just need to look at the stuff that crowds my desk and makes it difficult to type this to know that I have more than I could ever need and yet I so easily grumble. "It's too windy", "Snow in May? Seriously? I just packed the oodles and oodles of clothes you have provided and now I have to trouble myself to dig out one of the many coats I have." Oh and list could go on and on, it's not just about the weather.
I was reminded of a comedian I once saw on Conan O'brien "Everything's Amazing and Nobody's Happy" he said. You can watch it here on Youtube. Sorry I don't know how to upload it to my blog but it's worth the trip on over there.
"Have you entered the storehouse of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail. Which I reserve for times of trouble, for days of war and battle?
What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth?
Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm, to water a land where no man lives, a desert with no one in it, to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass?
Does the rain have a father?
Who fathers the drops of dew?
From whose womb comes the ice?
Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens when the waters become hard as stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen?...
Can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water?
Do you send the lightning bolts on their way?
Do they report to you "Here we are"?
Who endowed the heart with wisdom or gave understanding to the mind?
Who has the wisdom to count to the clouds?
Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens when the dust becomes hard and clod of earth stick together? Job 38 (portions)
Oh man... Lord, forgive me and teach me to "in EVERYTHING give thanks to the Lord".
Psalms 65:9 You care for the land and water it; you enrich it abundantly. The streams of God are filled with water to provide the people with grain.
It is so amazing to me that there is nothing that God does or that God allows that isn't out of His great and unfailing love for me, for us.
I know that so many of you are facing storms in your life that far outweigh the storm in my life yesterday; cry out to the Lord in your trouble, and he will bring you out of your distress, he will still the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea will be hushed. You will be glad when it grows calm and He will guide you to your desired haven. Give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for us.
Psalms 107:28-31 (revised)
No doubt I am loving the sun today... the snow is gone and my grass is greener!
God loves me... little ole' grumbly me, now that is amazing!
MUAH! Cija
10 minutes later... so God has a sense of humor for sure. I just publish this post when I realize that something is amiss. Three day's ago I spent close to 4 hours labelling every single post in my blog so that if you were interested in newborn shots you could simply click on Newborn and it would bring up all the newborn posts. Pretty handy, right? Any who, yesterday and this morning I couldn't log into blogger they were doing some maintenance and such... well I just realized that my 4 hours of labelling?? Gone.. vanished... bah-bye, as is my last couple blog entries. So Cija, will you really be thankful in everything?
Oh man... so, let the labelling begin again, only this time I will do them a little at a time.
