Sunny Skies
Houston has enjoyed a rainy spring. Our normally sunny skies have been filled with storm clouds that have dumped rain that will be especially appreciated as our summer temperatures climb. Even today, as I write, the thunder is rolling and rain is pouring.
While I appreciate the rain that helps our plants flourish and keeps our swimming pool full, there was a time when a different kind of storm thundered its way into my life. Our third child was born at thirty-seven weeks, weighed one ounce shy of seven pounds, and was beautiful, as all my children are! Within minutes, however, the nurses noticed him grunting when he breathed and decided he needed a little oxygen support to help get his lungs going. They took him from us for what was supposed to be minutes, but turned into eleven days. Over the next 36 hours he continued to need more and more support and was placed in a solitary room in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), intubated and sedated, on one hundred percent oxygen. Despite all their efforts, his lungs were not absorbing the oxygen, and Andrew was slowly suffocating. By the fifth day, the doctors were preparing us for his death as there was nothing further they could do.
We came home from being with him at the hospital, and my husband went into the basement to pray. God spoke this word to his heart, like Joseph said to his brothers in Genesis 50:21, “So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” He came up from the basement and told me, “Andrew is going to live!”
The next morning, the staff told us they had been successfully lowering Andrew’s oxygen level all through the night. Truly, God saw our baby and miraculously healed him. After eleven days in the NICU we brought our baby home, that baby who is now over six feet tall and still thriving! This was a very happy ending to that chapter of our story, and I am now thankful for what the Lord taught me through that experience. The most precious lesson is that the Lord is worthy to be praised every day. Psalm 113:3 puts it this way: “From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the Lord is to be praised.”
Consider now the promise God made to Noah, his sons, and all the earth.
“As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”
“This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”
Genesis 8:22, 9:12-16 (NIV)
Within His promise is God’s acknowledgement that clouds will come. There will be storms, thunder, and rain. But just because the storm blocks the sun from my view does not mean the sun has stopped shining or been taken from its ordained place in the sky. It may be dark where I am, but somewhere the sun is surely shining. The clouds and storms that come our way will not destroy us, no matter the fury they unleash. Our daily hope and eternal hope are secure in God, the sure anchor of our souls (Heb. 6:19).
You see, the day before our son was born, the sun was shining brightly, and we knew God was good. God was loving and worthy of our praise and worship, and though we were not aware of it, the NICU was full. The next day, dark storm clouds rolled into our lives, seeming to block the sun. Our circumstances changed drastically, but God had not changed. Now that it was our baby in the NICU, it did not mean God was any less good, faithful, loving, or worthy than He was the day before. God is constant, and even from before the sun first started shining in the sky, until the light of His presence replaces that sun, He is worthy to be praised. Our perspective or circumstance does not change God.
My friend, I pray that you will welcome this truth into your heart. Just as the sun is in the sky and is always shining, our God remains true to His character and promises, and He is worthy of our praise no matter our circumstances. Through storms, thunder, rain, and the darkness of night – He is good. He has promised and provided eternal life for us; He is faithful, loving, and worthy of our praise!