As a young mom, I can remember anticipating the years when my children would be grown. Not because I didn’t love spending each day with them (I did!), but because I thought once I’d raised them, then all my mom worries would be over.
Boy, was I wrong! Once our sons were grown, my husband and I discovered that the worries just got bigger as the problems got bigger. When my adult children have gone through difficult times, I’ve reminisced about those wonderful days when all their problems could be fixed with a hug, a Band-Aid and a lollipop.
I thought about that this past week as stories of Hurricane Irma’s approach filled the news. I heard newscasters use words such as “monster storm” and “strongest winds ever recorded.” Not words one wants to hear when that storm is bearing down on the state where family lives—in this case, our son, daughter-in-law and grandson.
I was worried as photos of mind-boggling damage appeared on my television screen from islands where Hurricane Irma had already dispensed her fury. We watched and waitet as the stories got bigger and bigger about the projected impact Irma would have on Florida. My brain had trouble wrapping around the idea of 185-mile-per-hour winds.
At first, my son planned to evacuate, but then as forecasters plotted the hurricane, it took a path to the east, leaving the panhandle of Florida out of direct impact. They decided to stay, and all seemed well, until all of a sudden the storm began moving west. This mama’s worry meter spiked again, because now the roads were jammed with those from South Florida who were evacuating before their cities took direct hits.
And then God reminded me of two important things:
1. That I needed to place my loved ones in my Father’s hands because the God who took care of them while they lived at home was the same God who would be there with them during the storm.
2. To take refuge in those precious promises from Scripture that I’d memorized through the years. The words from Psalm 56:3 comforted me, “What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.”
The wait leading up to Hurricane Irma’s arrival was hard. The wait to hear that my precious family was okay seemed like it took forever. But the thing that made the time of waiting bearable was that I knew the One who was waiting with me—and with them—and that as long as He was in charge, my loved ones couldn’t be in better hands.
Are you in a period of waiting today? You can trust the One who waits with you.
