A friend of mine used to say that he knows God is good because He made eating so enjoyable. I would laugh. Its funny because its true.
God could have just as easily decided to make eating completely routine and lacking in pleasure (or displeasure as is sometimes the case). In fact, He could have designed our bodies to need no source of nutrition at all! He could have made us photosynthesizers, could have allowed our bodies to create our own energy, cold have created our bodies to not even need energy. Eating is only a necessary part of life for humans because God decided it should be that way.
But why? Its not like creating non-eating humans would have taken more time, like self-sufficient humans were the 3G model and he just didn't want to spend the money to upgrade! So why make us reliant on food, and why give us the joy of eating delicious meals? Because its how He teaches us things. We see the contrast between God's power and our non-power when we rely on his manna from heaven. We learn how to crave His Word, to need it and also to love it and revel in it, by comparing it to our daily bread. In creating the natural world, God reveals to us every important lesson. Fact: God was using sermon illustrations before sermons were born.
All of that is a very long introduction. The point: God reminded me of something very important today, and He did so with a storm. "Wow, thats quite a storm!" I thought. "I'd better stay inside, away from windows. Take shelter, get as far from the danger as possible." (alright, I'll admit, there was this crazy little part of me that wanted to go sit in my hammock in the middle of the downpour. but i try not to listen to that part. its little. and crazy.) Storms equal danger. Very real danger. People die in storms; homes are destroyed; the pain that a big storm can cause is very real.
Driving home after the storm subsided, however, I realized something. The grass is so green! The trees that are still standing look proud and strong. The street is strewn with the already dead petals that had been lifelessly hanging from their stems for days, but the flowers that held on through the storm are brighter and happier than ever. The same storm that brings destruction and death also bring rejuvenation and new life!
God did not have to make it this way. Sure, he could have made storms horrible things that only brought pain and suffering. But he also could have made storms light and easy! A little rain for the parched flowers, a light breeze, like the lovely 15 minute mist I always looked forward to on Spring Break in Florida as a kid - a quick way to cool off the heat of the day, and then on with life as if nothing happened.
Instead, God made storms hard, even frightening. They crash in the sky and drown the earth and rattle my windows and echo in my chimney and make my dog hide under the bed (not that he doesn't do that anyway), and then they peal back and reveal something absolutely beautiful. If you've never stood outside right after a storm and smelled the air and made a mental note of how bright the colors of the earth are under the still-grey sky, you can not understand what I mean. But if you have shared in that joyous moment of calm, you know that in that moment, the earth has never been more beautiful, more... right.
So why did God make it this way? Because He is good. He wants us to understand His nature, so He infused it into Nature. He created the physical world to reflect the spiritual world, gave us something we can see and smell and feel to help us understand something much deeper and far more important.
Don't hide from the storms. Dig your roots deep into the soil and prepare yourself, because the storms will come! And guess what. That next storm might actually tear you to pieces. A terrifying thought, no? But what if you just brace yourself, stand tall, and let the rain soak through you? When the clouds lift, you just might be left stronger, healthier, and more beautiful than ever - not in spite of the storm, but because of it.
Father, thank you for your protection today. Thank you for the beauty and strength that has come from this storm. But also, thank you for the storm.
