Cleaning Up After the Storm

I was so surprised on my walk this day to find that all the yards, sidewalks and streets were covered in limbs, leaves and other types of debris, obviously blown about by a strong and mighty wind sometime during the night. How could I have missed such a weather event? I always wake up so easily at the slightest sound. I certainly never miss a storm. I was not prepared for what I found today.

Sometimes we can see the storm coming up ahead. The meteorologist gives us advanced warning. The doctor lays out the road we face in treatment. The economic indicators point to hard times. Relationships deteriorate to a point that it becomes inevitable that a day of reckoning awaits. Sometimes we see storms coming. We do not welcome them. They are hard. But at least we know. We can prepare.

Once a mother brought her little son to see me. He had gotten in trouble at school and the parents thought the preacher could help “straighten him out”. As the boy and I chatted in my office, I learned that in his classroom there was a big painting of a tree that took up one corner. Each child was represented by an apple. Each day began with all the apples up in the tree. If you broke the rules, your apple ended up on the ground.

I asked the boy what had happened that day at school. With great passion and confusion he replied, “Barry, I don’t know. I was having a good day. Next thing I know, I look up and my apple is on the ground.”

Those are the days that try our souls, aren’t they? We are going along, minding our own business, and the next thing we know our apple is on the ground. We are caught off guard, blindsided. We wake up and, to our surprise, a wind has blown through and made a mess of things.

These are the days we listen in fresh ways to hear the promise of Jesus to “be with us always”. These are the days we look to true friends to be there to help us start cleaning up the mess. These are the days we remember the kind of friend we need to be to others.

Peace.