In times past, the pagans credited their gods for all phenomena that they didn’t understand, like mountains erupting and pouring out molten lava, or the shaking of the earth and mountains splitting into pieces. Today, to say God is behind the weather is determined as naive and unscientific. Instead, weather experts look for reasons for why our weather is odd, citing warmer oceans, a change in wind patterns, etc.
Yet who is behind those reasons? If global warming exists, can anyone really believe that puny man has anything to do with it? We are like ants on a mountain, like grains of sand in the ocean. No matter our boasts and enlarged view of ourselves, compared to the power of God, we are nothing.
Who has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain and a way for the thunderbolt, to bring rain on a land where no man is, on the desert in which there is no man, to satisfy the waste and desolate land, and to make the ground sprout with grass? Has the rain a father, or who has begotten the drops of dew? From whose womb did the ice come forth, and who has given birth to the frost of heaven? (Job 38:25–29)I looked out this morning at frost and sunshine, together producing beauty that artists can only copy not create. We pour pollutants into it, yet the air is crisp and clean, the light unhindered and warming the window panes. I might be able to turn up the thermostat to heat my house, but I cannot change winter to summer nor can I stop the wind with a single word.
(God) it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth, who makes lightnings for the rain and brings forth the wind from his storehouses. (Psalm 135:7)
When he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain, and he brings forth the wind from his storehouses. Every man is stupid and without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols, for his images are false, and there is no breath in them. (Jeremiah 10:13–14)
O LORD, what is man that you regard him, or the son of man that you think of him? Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow. Bow your heavens, O LORD, and come down! Touch the mountains so that they smoke! Flash forth the lightning and scatter them; send out your arrows and rout them! (Psalm 144:3–6)
He stood and measured the earth; he looked and shook the nations; then the eternal mountains were scattered; the everlasting hills sank low. His were the everlasting ways. (Habakkuk 3:6)The everlasting God can shake the earth, even the nations. He can scatter mountains and sink the hills. He can do all this because He alone has that kind of power. He also has wisdom and righteousness. His actions are grounded in an everlasting character, an unchanging nature.
I do not understand all the ways of God, but I could never say that the weather is without reason or pattern, without a part in His divine plan. He promised seed time and harvest. He sends rain and snow and sunshine and moves the earth as He wills. Instead of marveling at the weather, I should be in awe at the power of the Weather-Maker, my Lord and Almighty God.
********
Lord, I’m thankful to Your Word that tells me You are sovereign. I’m also glad for my mother who used to say of the weather (and passed to me her attitude), “We must need it or we wouldn’t be getting it.” I do not like being too cold or too warm, yet You control the thermostat of this world. I do not like going out in storms or hearing of those suffering because of weather, yet You are able to keep safe or destroy. You are wise and Your doings are based on Your righteous character. Keep me from complaining about weather. Don’t let it rule my attitude or my life in any way. Instead, keep my heart grateful for all that comes from Your hand. Fill me with a spirit of awe — You are in charge of all things.
No comments:
Post a Comment