Another mass of darkness is approaching. By the time you can see it, you know there’s not much you can do to avoid what’s coming. You can make wise choices and seek shelter. You can do your best to protect things that might become damaged in the wake of the storm. Before you know it, the darkness is all-consuming, the only thing you can do now is wait for it to pass and hope that your choices were wise enough to withstand what’s coming.

The leaves of a bush and a tree begin to move as the wall of wind that comes along begins to shake everything loose. The grumble of thunder is present now, and the blue sky and sun shine are a distant memory under the presence of the increasing darkness. You can hardly believe they are still there, and don’t even consider it while the storm is approaches.

The thunder is louder now, rain drops begin to fall. We “let the chips fall where they may” allowing it, no matter what may happen after that. There’s nothing we can do at this point besides let the downpour wash away every loose end and hope that we can repair what might get damaged in it’s wake.

When the dark storms of life hit us out of nowhere, it often looks just like an unexpected thunderstorm. We can make so many comparisons, and human nature tends to respond to them the same whether it’s physical rain drops falling on us, or disappointment after heartache that just keep coming our way.

The thing I have found myself marveling at about a storm cloud though, is when I can see a peek of blue sky in the break of it. God gives us these small glimmers of hope in the darkest of seasons, and it’s a reminder of what we can choose to remember in the midst of any darkness we find ourselves under.

However, we aren’t always blessed with a glimmer of blue sky. Sometimes the storm isn’t quick, sometimes the storm of life we’re facing has no end in sight. Sometimes the radar shows hours, days, weeks of endless rain and when that happens it’s especially difficult to remember the blue sky that still exists, even if we can’t see it. The storm is all encompassing, it covers everything we can see. We protect what we can from it, and we adapt in the process. We trust, trust God that we will see the blue sky again. It might not be on this side of heaven, but we won’t know unless we stick around and patiently wait for the storm to break.

The forecast may seem bleak, but the blue sky is always closer than we think, if we could only see above a storm cloud.