January Roller Coaster

The heavy rain hit the skylight as though it was being tossed forcibly by the bucket full.  A jagged ribbon of lightning lit the night sky and the thunder rumbled close at its heels.  Am I talking about a mid-summer night’s storm?  No this was last night—mid-January.

            

Since the beginning of 2017, the weather has been a wild roller-coaster ride. Days of sun and blue skies, days of deep cold, days of fog, days of snow and blowing snow, of closed roads and unsafe travel, of rain , of sub-zero temperatures and back—and we’re not even half way through January.

          

  As I lay in bed to the tune of thunder and lightning, I began to compare it to another ride I’ve been on (and I surmise that I’m not the only one.)  A thunder-bolt of grief a year after the death of my husband, the joy of seeing great-grandchildren growing and thriving, the sorrow of seeing a good friend enduring serious surgery and a week later developing Gillian Barre syndrome, the pleasure of seeing my 20 year-old granddaughter’s book published, the unexpected death of another dear friend, quiet moments of writing where inspiration comes as a surprise, walking alongside friends who are on the waiting list for a heart for their three month-old, and on and on it goes.

           

But that’s life, isn’t it—the good alternating with the challenging and excruciatingly difficult in our existence?  That is the way life is, but it’s up to us what we do with it and how we manage to walk on.   We can get bowed down with the load or we can put our hand ‘in the hand of the Man who stilled the waters.’

    

   Sometimes when difficulties and trials come one after another, it feels as though we’re being tried by fire. Even that has an upside when we consider Zechariah 13:9 “I will bring those that remain through the fire and make them pure, as gold and silver are refined and purified by fire. They will call upon my name and I will hear them; I will say, ‘These are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’”

           

 Thank you Lord, that I am yours and you, oh Lord are my God!

Ruth Smith Meyer  is the author of two novels, "Not Easily Broken," "Not Far from the Tree,"  her memoirs, "Out of the Ordinary" and a children's book, "Tyson's Sad Bad Day."  She is collaborating with five authors to write "Good Grief People" due to come out soon.  

www.ruthsmithmeyer.com