I love thunderstorms! I felt like we were gypped last summer when it hardly rained, let alone stormed. Admittedly, I struggle with the storms that come in the middle of the night because there is nothing to see except the brilliance of the lightning flash that is usually more blinding than brilliant. When I was growing up, I used to think that God and Satan were bowling and whenever there was thunder, it was a strike. Other times, I figured they were rolling stones at each other in an angry feud. I also used to sit on my bed and watch the storms with our dog. He loved them, too, until he grew older and wiser. I remember one time we were watching a storm and the trees were almost doubling over because the winds were so strong. LIghtning struck one, once, and wood chips flew all over the yard. The tree carried a permanent scar of where the electrical current ran from top to bottom but seemed to grow taller after that.

Recently, one of my friends was telling me about a tree in her yard that was planted when she and her husband got married. Over the course of a few years, the tree got blight and almost died; a big windstorm split the tree in half, and finally, there was another disease that caused them to cut it down to the ground. They had assumed that the tree was dead and they would need to replace it if they wanted any shade. A year later, the tree was as strong and beautiful as it had ever been. It had withstood the wind and the pests and the storms and had survived.

We are not much different than that tree. We all have scars that represent a part of life when we were knocked down for some reason. It could have been an extended illness, an unexpected surgery, the death of a child or a loved one, a long-term illness, the loss of a job, or many other things that come up in our lives. We are blown over, knocked down, ripped in two, and filled with decay. However, if we stick with God and His plan for our lives, we will grow back stronger and more beautiful before. The scars will remain visible and we might bend but we will not break if we just keep looking to Him and His infinite love and faithfulness.

You probably know someone who is doing a lot of bending and breaking right now. Someone who may have just been pruned by life. Their leaves have fallen off and there appears to be little or no life left in them. Pray for them, talk with them, love them and see what happens when God continues to use you to help them through the dark storms in their lives. He has created us to need each other and to help each other and to put a stake in the ground to hold each other up, if necessary.

God wants to be your continued shelter and protection against the storms of life. He has shown us time and time again that we will grow back more beautiful and stronger than before. Is your foundation deep enough to withstand even the toughest storms? Is your faith strong enough to bend and remain strong with every storm that you encounter?