After the Storm…
Life brings each of us – individually and corporately – many versions of “storms”.? Personal storms.? Family storms.? Professional storms.? Even recreational storms.? At work, we find ourselves trying to endure individual storms in decision-making and personality differences – not to mention “trying” bosses.? Then there are the group and team storms.? And do not forget the organizational storms that impact everyone in the shop.? There are also “faith storms”.? Times when our faith appears too thin, too limited, too restrictive, too whatever – but not enough.? And sometimes those faith storms – like the other life storms – seem like they will never end. Never blow over.? Never reach a calm state again.? It is hard to go a single day without some type of storm of some magnitude.
Nature has a way of reminding us through its “nature” storms that storms do end.? Sometimes quickly.? Sometimes not so quickly.? They also remind us of something else.? Beauty is left after the storm.? I know…I know.? Lots of damages can be found “after the storm”.? Sometimes lots and lots.? We have had a really weird few months around here with lots of storms and even rare tornadoes.? Weeks later, damages are still seen everywhere.? Blue tarps on many, many rooftops.? Limbs and tree trunks – some cut, many not – lining almost every street and road.? But then there is the beauty of neighbors helping neighbors in ways not imagined.? Families that can bicker over the slightest things coming together after the storm.? Faith congregations worshipping in the open air and singing praises louder than ever.? Does not get much more beautiful than that.
So maybe this paragraph is not needed.? Maybe it is superfluous.? But I still want to share.? This morning, we had another horrible storm.? It lasted for hours.? Wind and rain beating everything in the way.? I was driving across town from a meeting to my office after it was all over.? There is a beautiful Southern Magnolia tree at one of the buildings near my building.? Today, I pulled over and went to check for “downed leaves”.? What you see in the photo above is the gathering from that one tree in just a matter of minutes.? I sent the photo to a couple of friends expressing my thoughts about the “beauty after the storm”.? And the downed leaves, the “damages” from the storm, are beautiful.? But as I drove back past that tree this afternoon, I saw the real beauty after the storm: the hundreds of beautiful shiny leaves, most green but some yellow and a few brown, still on the tree.? The reminder to me is that there really is beauty after the storm.? But we sometimes have to look for it in spite of the more easily seen damages “in front of our faces”.
May you find it possible to find beauty after your own storms, no matter what type they are.? No matter the severity of each.? Look past the damages hitting you in your face to see the beauty that will persist long after the storm – like those beautiful, shiny leaves left on the Southern Magnolia tree nearby.
Blessings!