Thus Saith the Lord

The boom was so loud at our house that it shook the windows.  Michael and I were in the kitchen getting something to eat.  "Was that thunder?"  I asked.  He had just checked the radar a few minutes before and said that it couldn't be thunder because the radar was clear.  We went outside to look around and wondered if the boom could have been a truck that didn't make it around the turn a couple of miles from the house.

It wasn't until about twenty minutes later I got a message that a fertilizer plant had exploded.  It was 50 miles away.

The news hasn't been good for many of our church members who have family and friends from West.  The phone has been ringing since the news broke.  West and Ennis are both Czech communities with many families sharing the same last name that consists of many consonants with a mere splattering of vowels.

While watching the news last night, a sadness came over me for my kids and grandkids.  The world is so much scarier than when I was young.  

But.

We are strangers in this land.  Just passing through.  There is a whole lot of ugly going on here, but our reality is that Jesus' word is good.  We were never told that there would not be trials and heartache.  We live in a fallen world and it is just not going to get better before He comes for us.  

Until then, He promises us peace and strength and guidance.  It is so sweet to be able to trust that.  To trust Him.  To take Him at His word.  To rest upon His promises.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.  John 14:27

There is going to be ugly.  There is going to be uglier.  There is also Promise.

I have had this old hymn on my mind all day today through the phone calls and the news reports.

Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus

Just to take Him at His Word

Just to rest upon His promise

Just to know, thus saith the Lord.

This is our reality.