In the Eye of the Storm

The song goes, “In the eye of the storm, You remain in control. And in the middle of the war, You guard my soul. You alone are the anchor, when my sails are torn. Your love surrounds me, in the eye of the storm.”

It’s a phenomenon we’ve all witnessed. There are no sides in a crisis. There is no black or white, no straight or gay, no citizen and no alien. The “storm” can be a fire or a flood, an earthquake or a tsunami, or in the case of Harvey and Irma a husband and wife pair of hurricanes. This blog is called God Provides where Hate Divides and when we’re in the middle of the war we don’t care about the skin color of the soldier who fights beside us, just that God is there to defend our humanity. In the eye of the storm it’s that humanity that makes us all equals.

I find it interesting that many Americans spent much of the last 6 months denigrating each other by skin color or national origin and it took two acts of God to bring us together and remind us that we’re all one race – the human race. I have yet to read an article in the MSM about how protestors rejected police help when Harvey walloped the Texas coastline or about a gay Florida couple being rejected evacuation services. But I have seen plenty of articles ignoring the color of evacuees’ skin and the sexual orientation or national origin of rescuers. “Gay Fireman Rescues Elderly Couple” – not a headline I’ve seen. “Illegal Immigrant Arrested Seeking Shelter from Irma” – nope, not that one either.

Mark and Luke each recounts the day Jesus stood on the small boat and commanded the storm to subside. And the winds and the water obeyed Him. Jesus’ disciples will tell you – God commands the rains. Noah, Paul and Jonah will also confirm that God brings the storm. He is in the eye of the storm, sometimes bringing disaster as in the great flood of Genesis, sometimes to show His power as in the storm on the Sea of Galilee – but He’s always in the storm.

The great Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote in “The Charge of the Light Brigade” that it is “Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die.” It’s a shame we need such a reminder.

God is in the eye of the storm, even when we ourselves are the storm’s creator.