Who has ascended into heaven, or descended? Who has gathered the wind in His fists? Who has bound the waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name, and what is His Son’s name, if you know?
Proverbs 30:4
Every morning our Doberman Levi suggests, no he actually demands in a round about way, that we go on our morning walk routine. If we don’t get out the door at our usual time he gets sad. Now he doesn’t nudge me and annoy me like some other fury family members we have had, he just lays down and looks like the pet store totally ran out of treats and there are no more left in the world. Sometimes he even makes sighing sounds that pulls at my heartstrings. So, needless to say, no matter how hot it is in this Florida weather, out the door we go.
We got a late start on this one particular day and the sun was up pretty high, so there were very few shady areas. Now Levi is black and rust color, and we all know how black attracts the heat of the sun, but he has figured out that the quicker he gets to the shady areas, the less heat he feels. So he walks normally in the shade, but in the sun he pulls me when he sees shade up ahead. This morning was no different, and I also found myself walking faster to get to the next shady area too.
As I felt the occasional breeze and enjoyed it’s brevities, I thought about how when it’s on our backs that we can’t feel it much. Instinctively sometimes we stop to let it catch up to us. The faster we walk though the less breeze, or even no breeze is the reaction. But come on now it is hot, and all we want to do is get to comfort, so our pace is fast. Who has time to slow down and feel the breeze, right? Patience is not an option. Got to keep moving to get out of the heat.
We had just exited a breezy shaded area and there was a long stretch of full sun so I thought, or the Holy Spirit impressed upon me to slow down. It didn’t make much sense at the moment, after all it was hot in the sun and it was much cooler just a few seconds before, but I did and behold! I felt the breeze! We were able to walk with a gentle cooling and weren’t getting in front of the breeze now, but letting it comfort us. Sure it was still hot, but more tolerable. It wasn’t a race to get to comfort, we were walking in comfort by simply slowing down. Somebody out there is probably thinking I finally found the aha moment and I did.
That’s what I think we do with God sometimes. We get uncomfortable in our surroundings so we head towards comfort as quickly as we can leaving Him in the distance. We hurry towards what we see in front of us, yet God wants us to slow down long enough so He can send the breeze (His peace). The problem (or heat) doesn’t totally go away, but we can better manage it because He is comforting us. He so badly want us to have this aha moment and just slow down. But hurry we must because we think comfort is ahead, but actually “the breeze” is behind us longing to catch up, and we can have comfort much sooner if we wait for Him.
I wonder how many times God sent His breeze my way but I didn’t slow down long enough for it to catch up to me, but just kept going at a pace I thought was best and sweated my way through. You may have figured out a long time ago to slow down and let the breeze catch up and comfort you, or this may be a reminder like it was for me. Because, when we know that He is trying to send the breeze, we can slow down and trust that He has us. In fact, He has gathered the wind in His fists. Bound the waters in a garment. Established all the ends of the earth. His name is Almighty God, and His Son’s name is Jesus. Our Comforter. The Prince of Peace. He is the breeze on us when the heat is turned up if we’d just slow down to catch it.
Blessings
Elder Steve Smith