Holick Avenue

I was at work when it poured the other day. The sky was amazing. Watching the storm clouds sweep over the sun and change the colors of just about everything brought me to a time 15 years ago in the very same place.

And I must tell you I am amazed at the fact that I am now working in the very place we lived when we first moved back here from a shaky 6 year ride in Arizona.

We lived down the street from where I now work...I used to love to watch the storms pass through. Bright green leaves would turn silver as the sun refused to be darkened by the clouds. Dark trunks would appear white. White houses seemed whiter and shadows were as black as night just before and immediately after one of these storms.

I remember standing on the porch and watching the colors of the trees turn silver and white. Then I looked further to see the mountains all around. These ordinary brownish grey mountains were purple and black.

There were some sunset evenings when those very same mountains were as pink and orange as they could be. They turned black when the clouds finally conquered the sun.

Stuff like that fills my senses. It is beyond my imagination to think up those kinds of color palettes. Light and lack of light can do that.

Art masters spent years playing with how light can dance across an object and change the whole focus of a painting.

I stood there that day, and I remember that I was so sad and yet overcome with the beauty of the color changes...and I wondered what color everything really was. Which light showed the true color of anything?

That day, with the wind and rain and the sun peeking through He spoke. That is how it is with us mostly. I wonder and He speaks, just drops understanding deep in my heart. The Lord showed me that day that the clouds and the light and rain that came and went were like the circumstances in our lives. They change the appearance of everything 'til we wonder what is reality anyway. And I understood that day that the very fact that there is a mountain whose colors can change just proves that there is a mountain. So, He tenderly showed me that the very fact that there are circumstances that change my perception of God and His capabilities is just proof that He is there, like that mountain and those trees, and He is Who He is no matter what the circumstances make Him out to be. He has not moved, He is right there in front of me, leading me. The circumstances changed the surface appearance but He is ever who He said He would be.

And I stood there, at work, just the other day, and that whole conversation with My God was as fresh and new as the day we first had it.

Now that the years have passed I can say, with all honesty, I learned to trust Him in a new way that day and this trust has carried me through quite a few episodes of changing circumstances.

If nothing else, age lends itself to security. When I looked at the storm the other day I found I was still standing on the Rock where He had placed me that day back on Holick Avenue.