Bluebonnets and Tornados

This weekend I had the privilege to teach at a prayer retreat.

We met at a retreat center that was amazingly peaceful, even in the middle of a huge thunder storm that rolled through at the end of the day. 

It was torrential, this storm, and it came on quickly. 

It reminded me of the time I lived in Texas.

Springtime in Texas is wonderful and unpredictable.

I guess you could say its wonderfully-unpredictable.

I remember with clarity the time I drove down I-30 headed home from a friends house. Along each side of the highway were large patches of wild Bluebonnets. Some of the best bonnets I have ever seen. They were tall and lush; so thick the ground looked as if an artist had taken his finest brush, his prettiest shade of purpley-blue, and painted his finest work ever. 

It was spectacular.

In contrast, as I looked at my rearview mirror the sky was a mass of dark, heavy clouds. There was a storm brewin', and it was headed our way. I turned on the radio and the voice through the speakers advised of a tornado warning - conditions were ripe...'get somewhere safe, and take warning from the sirens'.

I hurried home with my two small children, praying the entire way. It occurred to me that the conditions perfect for painting the highways purple are the same conditions that turn the sky to black: a cool morning, a warm afternoon, a little humidity, a bit of wind.

Bluebonnets and Tornados.

...they both come in the spring.

In Texas, they almost always come together.

Last week, as I drove the highway of life, I saw splashes of color that made my heart sing, and I watched as friends dealt with storms that came upon them without warning - changing life as they've always known it to be.

I'm praying for them, for myself, to cling to God in times both good and bad, because He holds us in His hand.

He is all that is True.

He is bigger than life's storms.

He's the shelter in these storms.

Even so, my heart feels heavy...

Bluebonnets and Tornado's, 


...wonderful and unpredictable...


...they always seem to come in spring.

~~~~

'For behold, the winter is past,

The rain is over and gone.

'The flowers have already appeared in the land;

Arise, my darling, my beautiful one,

And come along!' "

Song 2:11,13 

(NASB)