Faith in Hope

The weather alert alarm on my smart phone has let me know that bad weather is approaching, storms are close enough sound the city warning sirens.  The last of the daytime has turned to night but I am safe, and feel secure.  Were I still a small girl in our house down the road, where I grew up, the whole family would be under the dining room table with pillows in our hands and instructions to place them on our heads when the windows start breaking and glass blows toward us.  Thankfully, that never happened, but I was assured by our mother that once again we had dodged a bullet that was bound to hit the target, our house, at sometime or another.  The house still stands, dodging bullets once again this day. 

This alert brings to mind the Sermon of this day delivered in  Trinity Episcopal Church by the Bishop of Illinois, the Reverend Daniel Martin.  He spoke also of being prepared, not for the next hail storm or tornado but for our death.  No one likes to be reminded of their own mortality.  It is not a sweet and feel good subject. It is also a subject that I avoided for 60 years of my life.
Death and dying.  In our small town of Yazoo City, Mississippi, those words mean Glenwood Cemetary, the place where  people are dying to get in. 

The subject of death was enough to make me leave the room, as Snagglepuss said "Exit, stage left!"  which means, get out as fast as possible.  The thought of death was enough to put me into a state (not as in Mississippi), as in mental anguish, for weeks. I was scared to death of even the thought of death.  Until now.

My security is not in the pillow under the table anymore, it comes from a higher power that assures me that no matter what happens, I will always have life.  Whatever the storm is that looms, there is peace in my heart and in my soul and in my mind because I have faith.  I know that no matter how bad the storms of life are, nothing can take God's promise from me.  He has saved me, thrown down a life line from Heaven! 

My heavenly father, I thank you for saving me from the storms that rage and will rage in my life.  I pray for those who are afraid, who need the shelter of your arms and your comfort.  I am humbled and thankful, Lord God.  Amen.