Spaghetti Strings and Faith

Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. ~ Isaiah 45:22

“What are those strings?” Cole asked, pointing at my laptop screen.

It was Friday, two days before the expected landfall – or bad coastal brushing – of Tropical Storm Isaac. The spaghetti computer models stretched in an uncomfortably large multitude along the entire peninsula of our home state, decorating Florida with purple, green, and pink storm track silly string.

Though early spaghetti models are quite regularly off course for the storm’s path, it was still nerve-wracking to wrap my mind around a hurricane hitting the Sunshine state. I explained to our older son what I knew about Spaghetti models – namely that they’re created from various computer models tracking weather conditions, and they predict a ‘most likely path scenario’ for the particular storm.

I noticed questions sparkling within Cole’s blue eyes as I pointed at the doppler and talked about Tropical Storm Isaac’s likely path toward Florida and the Gulf of Mexico.

“So the computers tell the weather people where it’s going?”

“Yes, they help them take a good guess.”

“They don’t know for sure?”

“Not for sure, no. They know for sure it won’t hit Alaska, but they don’t know if it’ll hit Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, or New Orleans.”

“So they’re guessing?” Cole’s eyebrows lifted.

“Kind of, yeah. They’re relying on computer models that are usually pretty close, but yes, they guess.” He contemplated that for a moment, letting the heaviness of its truth settle in his curious mind.

I went on about Isaac’s uncertain approach and reminded him of the excitement from 2004′s eventful and surprising hurricane season. Cole knew the story well - he was born two months before Hurricane Charley hit and went through two other minor hurricanes that year as a babbling infant.

Chase called his brother’s name like a song from the playroom, and Cole headed off into Lego wonderland.

I continued watching the radar, following the tie-dyed blob of rotating color that could damage buildings, flood homes, and take lives with its windy, swirling, water-logged presence.

So they’re guessing? Cole’s question came to mind, a reminder of human fallibility and frailty.

So much in life – nearly everything, in fact - is out of our control, like spaghetti models stretching across life’s days, weeks, months, and years. We make plans for next year though we’re not certain for tomorrow’s arrival. And God’s Word reminds us that our days are a vapor, a short measure of God’s creation, marked most clearly by their brevity.

Grasping for security and peace in this life apart from Jesus is like trying to hold hot sand with a closed first. Jesus promised that in Him alone we would find peace for uncertain days and life’s stormy trials. We don’t need to know the spaghetti strings’ exact course when our eyes are on our Savior.

“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” ~ John 16:33

Through Jesus, God provides us with the very best kind of storm shelter. We won’t know for certain the direction in which life’s spaghetti string will go, but we know Who holds it in His hand and we have His Word to lead us, step by step.

Strengthen your faith in God’s Word, and trust that God’s sovereignty and perfect care will provide enough sunshine to blot out the darkest clouds life may bring.

Faith isn’t the ability to believe long and far into the misty future. It’s simply taking God at His Word and taking the next step. ~ Joni Erickson Tada

Never, Nor

Tears?

As I slipped through the YMCA kids’ play area door, my relief about the end of the basketball season came to a crashing halt. Across the short hall, through the swarm of parents signing their kids in or out, I saw Chase’s crumpled, damp face. It was blotchy, his eyes swelled up and rimmed with the reddish pink of deep emotion.

When he was a toddler Chase struggled with separation anxiety, but at 6 years of age, he’s embraced independence with both grubby boy hands. This was especially true at the YMCA, where the boys love to run around and climb while I work out.

Cole and Chase had just played their final games of the basketball season and I was glad to be finished with Saturday morning YMCA trips. Chase’s games were at 9am followed by Cole’s game at 10. Toward the end of his brother’s game, Chase had become fidgety and asked to go to the kids’ play area. The game was close and Cole’s team was fighting valiantly to beat the only team who had beaten them, so I rushed Chase to the play area between the 3^rd and 4^th quarters.

After Cole’s game we’d gone to an outside courtyard and had a cupcake celebration, and Cole’s coach handed out trophies to the team. Most of the kids then left with their parents, but Cole and a few other boys started a game of tag. Chase had only been in the play area 20 minutes, so Trev and I chatted a few more minutes with the other parents.

It never dawned on me that attentive Chase would notice – through the glass in the kids’ play area - that some of Cole’s teammates were leaving the YMCA with their parents.

I rushed through the throng of bodies to Chase. Tears coursing down your child’s face steals a mom’s breath and constricts her heart. Chase is a solid, sturdy boy, and we frequently remind him that God made him strong, so he has to be gentle with others and with breakables. But I also knew the sensitive heart beating inside.

I wrapped my arms around him as he hiccupped and sniffed.

“I saw Cole’s teammates leave. I thought you l-left me.”

I sat on the bench, pulling him down with me. He wriggled onto my lap, filling it as full as my heart. He was starting 1^st grade in a few days, and our social butterfly was excited to be back with friends. I found myself wishing there were perfect words to take away any thought of abandonment.

“Daddy and I would never, ever leave you.” I explained where we had been and asked if he’d like to play tag, too. He nodded, swiping at his nose, and I pulled out a tissue.

“I j-just thought you l-left me.”

“Never, honey. We would never leave you.”…Nor forsake you. Truth lit up my mind, words written across my heart from years ago.

“I will not leave you nor forsake you…do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

~ Joshua 1:5 & 9

One of the promises planted in me as a child - a small, powerfully potent seed of hope – was that God would always be with me. It wasn’t debatable or uncertain; it was Truth and unchanging. Through faith in Jesus Christ and the gift of His Holy Spirit, our Creator indwells us and promises to never leaves us nor forsake us.

This truth doesn’t mean life is perfect and peaceful; instead, it means that through every good work and every trial, He strengthens us  – and we’re never alone through them…never left behind, forgotten, passed off, forsaken, tossed away, handed off, or traded in.

Never left behind, nor forsaken.

Resting my chin on Chase’s blond hair, I gave thanks for this reassurance throughout His word and for God’s unchanging, perfectly amazing grace.

“He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.” ~ Psalm 91:1 & 2