Our God is powerful and beautiful and bountiful and wonderful. His creativity is fathomless, His strength matchless, His grace tireless, and His love beyond comprehension. So, what does any of that have to do with Psalm 135:7? Much more than you might think at first glance. It is not unusual to find people asking, even arguing, in today's society about the goodness of God. "If God is so good, then why____? or, why_______?" While there are some decent answers regarding man's own responsibility for the world's condition through sin-inspired mismanagement, there is another train of thought to be remembered. Simply - GOD. G-O-D! He is just waaaay bigger than we could ever grasp. And He is in no way threatened by our upward thrust fingers of judgment, seeking to call Him to some court of universal accountability for what He does or does not allow in the earth.
That's why I love verses like this one. In them are housed the very tensions being described. The conditions that enable us to flourish also threaten our very existence. The sun causes all things to grow. Yet, left unchecked by the clouds, it can scorch us. The clouds that protect us from the sun and bring the nourishing rains, also drench the earth with floods and suffocate it with snow. The nourishing rain comes with shattering, unpredictable spears of lightning. The winds that spread the seeds and soothe us can also toss us mercilessly to and fro. And our ego-less God is not afraid of this tension. When we've been crying out for rain to water our dusty crops, God is not afraid to stab the earth beside us with one billion volts of raw, decimating power. We may not like it. We may run and hide under the bed, thumbs securely inserted into our mouths. We may knock our knees and pray for the storm to pass; but make no mistake - we now know, once again, that God is GOD.
Friends, remember that we are made in His image. Remember that we are being changed from glory to glory, grown into a more fitting and accurate representation of Him by the minute. It's what He does and it's who we are - His kids. How easy did we expect that to be? Do we think that we will be exempt from the tensions He must endure? In moments of ease and comfort, we get to celebrate and enjoy our Christlike-ness. But when the thunder claps and winds pick up, we get to advance and grow in it. Embrace the ferocity of God. Let Him awe you with His vastness one minute and then stroke your hair the next as you cuddle up under the coo of His still, small voice. He is GOD, after all. Bigger than your brains can handle, yet small enough to fit inside your soul. So...let the thunder roll.
Forever panning for gold,
Chris Liotta
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