Wait five minutes and it’ll change

You bless all of those who trust you, LORD, and refuse to worship idols or follow false gods. Psalm 40:4 CEV

Life in the Southwestern United States has its advantages when it comes to the cool season. We have gorgeous winters with clear, crisp air, and brief storms, and nearby are mountains with snowy mantles to remind us how, just a few miles from that snow, we are able to wear flip-flops for gardening, even in winter. The downside is that we get windy blasts after each storm, which blow desert dust over the cities, knock down palm fronds and uproot large trees, and blow big vehicles off the highways.

In general, the weather is predictable. All summer long, it’s hot, rainless, and smoggy in California; and in Arizona, there are monsoon thunderstorms rolling off the piney mountains and down across the sun-blasted desert. All winter, there are long periods of perfect weather punctuated by welcome rains.

My friends in Oregon and Georgia, though, say that if you don’t like the weather there, wait five minutes and it’ll change. In their pop-up downpours, there’s almost no oxygen for the water falling so densely!

Life on Earth is always changing. All lives, flora and fauna, are made to change from conception until death, and even then, we “push up daisies!” Change is inevitable, but many of us find change frightening because we can’t see the future and plan for it or take control of a situation. We are helpless to change the weather, our stature, or the future (Matthew 6:25-34).

Perhaps God forbade our consultation with astrologers, mediums, or the occult because our not knowing the future places us, like trusting, innocent children, in God’s hands where we belong. “Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods.” Psalm 40:4 NIV

He Who is unchangeable and holds our destiny, is preparing a home for us where we can forget all the stress and hassle of changing. Our joy and peace, our fuller knowledge of God’s grace and character, and our love for each other will increase through the ages of eternity.