U.S. Coast Guard Photo.
Anything that reminds us how big God is and how small we are is an opportunity to grow. The massive size and power of Hurricane Irma staggered our minds and gripped our hearts, if only for a few days. One image has stuck with me of the 600 mile diameter of Irma projected over the Gulf of Mexico and very nearly filling it up! And the many pictures of demolished houses demonstrate the unstoppable power of a Category 5 Hurricane. But Irma is a speck of dust in the whirlwind that is the power of God.
May we hear in the thundering of Harvey and Irma the loving voice of the Almighty Creator who spoke these words to Job:
“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding… Who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb, when I made clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band and prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors, and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed’?
“Who has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain and a way for the thunderbolt…? Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that a flood of waters may cover you? Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go and say to you, ‘Here we are’?” Job 38:4,8,11,25,34-35
Not only does this hurricane give us opportunities to point past the power of nature to the One who created nature but it gives followers of Jesus the chance to put into action the love we talk and sing about every Sunday.
Oh Lord, move in the hearts of your people to make the most of this opportunity! Energize us with an urgency to not only help with peoples’ physical needs but to help them see their spiritual need for the grace of Jesus Christ. Go before us, Holy Spirit, to give people the gift of conviction of sin and a strong sense of the perfect holiness and all surpassing power of the One True God of heaven and earth.