If the Wind Keeps Blowing and the Rain Keeps Falling...

I was telling my friend the story of this plant: I bought it on clearance just a tiny stick a few inches tall. I nursed it along for at least 3 years, it never amounting to much, some years thinking it was dead altogether. Last year, it finally climbed a few feet up and put on just a few flowers. But this year, it came in completely full and beautifully and covered itself with big white flowers. It was stunning and made me happy every time I looked at it. It was rewarding to know my years of patience and care had paid off. And my friend commented how similar that plant could be to our spiritual journey, how sometimes it felt like there was hardly anything there, we were just a withering stick or just trying to keep our faith alive, but eventually our patience and care would transform our hearts into the holy souls we desire to be and our faith would spread love to the world the way those white flowers grew and covered anything they could grasp onto.
Really beautiful stuff right? Except... then it hailed. And now this is what's left of my beautiful white flowers....

And then, I had a tough time getting my garden planted this year because it was so wet, but I finally got a dry day and a tiller and planted the whole garden in a weekend. And I looked back and admired the work and was so pleased. BUT...a week later, I'm looking at the pepper plants I planted only to discover that rabbits have eaten off an entire row of them. Which led me to look closer at the rows of beans next to them that I thought hadn't come up yet, and instead realized they had come up and were just being instantly eaten when the new stems popped out of the dirt.

Last week, the WIND blew so hard. All of the plants look exhausted and beat up. All of the flowers are gone.  I watched Sam try to pedal his bike against the wind and felt so bad for his struggle. This week, it just keeps raining, the sun doesn't shine and nothing is ever dry.


We know this struggle well don't we? We limp things along, we have patience, things are finally all just falling into place, and then it hails on us. The bottom falls out. We've spent years building something up, and it's washed away in an instant. Or maybe it just seems like the wind blows against us every single day, and it's exhausting.


Do you know what gets me through the days or seasons when everything is a struggle? And I'm not talking about rabbits eating my garden or flowers that disappear, but the really hard stuff that rocks us and turns our life upside down. Like the funeral I attended last week of a 33 year old man. Like the abuse and neglect the kids I care for experience or the worst, saddest and sickest stories on the news. The secret is my license plate.


A few years ago when we bought our used van from a dealership they applied for the license and it came in the mail. When I opened it, the numbers were 666. Lots of people that know the bible well know that this number is associated with the devil, specifically its the mark of the beast given in the book of revelation. I have to admit, when I first opened it I wondered for a long time if I should pay the money to order a new one. I mean, my family already has pretty strong feelings about me, I hate to give them some solidification! Ha. Somewhat kidding, but I will say that in the work that I do and the people I see, I get a lot of comments about my license plate numbers. So why did I decide to keep them?


Because they actually give me hope. I know a lot of people aren't used to even talking about the devil anymore, even though he is mentioned so many times in scripture, especially by Jesus. But its a part of his plan to be unknown, because his existence also proves the existence of God. And I think he often leaves people alone who aren't seeking God. But to those who believe, he is not always so hidden. If the devil is working hard to discourage you, it's because he's scared of you, scared of the relationship you have with God and of the good work you are doing for Jesus. But if we can recognize his work, every time the wind is blowing or trial after trial arrive in our life, it can bring us hope instead of despair, that's how God turns all those bad things, those evil works into His good and perfect plan. The license plate was meant to intimidate me, to remind me he's against me, to make me fearful of what horrible things he might do in my life next. But when I see it, I am encouraged. I know I'm doing good work and he is afraid enough to take the time to worry about me. And most of all, I know I'm on the side that always wins.


All of our encounters with evil God can use for good. Every death God allows (remember, God created us not for death but for life, death is the devils game, the result of sin), only snaps us out of our fixation on the immediate things of this world, and reminds us to live for the future of eternity in heaven. Every death gives God the opportunity to save us, to give us new life forever, a life that never again has to be afraid of death or separation.


Every time I go to a court hearing and listen to the insanity of the way people make decisions about the life of a child, I long for heaven more than ever, for a world ruled by a God who knows what this child needs more than he himself, instead of a judge whose never met him and people who have the wrong motivations.


Every time we send another baby to heaven I remember this life is so incredibly short and we will be reunited in "just a few days in the scope of eternity" as St. Therese said.
Every horrible story on the news tears at our hearts and we know so clearly that we were made for more than this.


It's hard to go all the way to "thankful" for all the strong winds that make our journey hard, the hail that destroys our flowers or the rabbits that eat everything we plant. And it's harder yet to be grateful for the horrible thing that is death. And yet, as Christians that's exactly what we do, because without death we would never have eternal life with God. And without all of the really earth shattering things that happen in our life, we might not realize we need God at all.

I grabbed this sign at thrift store this spring, it was only $3 but I was so happy with it and it brought me a lot of joy. I really wanted to work on embracing this concept of being grateful for ALL things, the good and the bad and the boring, etc.  I put it up in the bay window, because apparently this is my first week as a parent and I thought my three toddlers would just leave it alone? I'm not sure what I was thinking. Of course you more experienced (I really mean smarter) parents know it was only there for about 10 minutes before it was broken in half.


I came in to the room to the "uh-oh" and stared at the "new" sign split in two pieces and thought to myself: "I'm really NOT grateful that this is broken!" I set it up on the kitchen counter hoping to glue it back together later. But after a few days of looking at it broken, I decided it was better this way. Because it's easy to look at that sign and think about all the good things in our life we're grateful for, but I truly did buy it because I believe in being grateful for the broken things too. All of these things, God has allowed to bring us closer to Him. It's not always easy to mean it when I'm the in the midst of hurting, but my prayer today and every day is that the Holy Spirit can help me to be grateful for all things, the wind, the rain, the hail, even the broken things, maybe even especially the broken things, because they are exactly what I need.