Shelter

Last week there was sunshine and some warmth. We were turning off the central heating, drying clothes on the line, and going for walks in short sleeves. This week, we’re back to rummaging through the bag under the stairs for hats and gloves. A bitter wind blasts faces and knuckles as we pass one another on the street and joke about the weather.

Waking up each day, of each passing week, we don’t know exactly what’s coming our way. The weather perfectly reflects the nature of life. It’s unpredictable, changeable, and constantly reminding us that we shouldn’t take anything for granted. Sometimes we bask in the goodness of life and all its pleasures, while at other times, we are bracing ourselves against the icy coldness of difficulty and suffering from ‘inward toil and dejection’, as Amy Carmichael puts it.  

Yesterday, the wind blustered outside and in, as I read a ‘C S Lewis Daily’ email.

‘The real problem of the Christian life comes where people do not usually look for it. It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. And so on, all day. Standing back from all your natural fussings and frettings; coming in out of the wind.’  (Mere Christianity)

It’s normal for us to fret and worry. It just happens. Everything rushes at us like a wind as soon as we open our eyes.

It makes me wonder what the weather was like in the Garden of Eden. Did Adam and Eve live contentedly under a bright, warm sun that was never hidden by clouds or whose heat was never counteracted by cold winds? They never had to ‘come in out of the wind’ and into the shelter of God’s presence because the wind was never cold and the garden itself was his presence. Perhaps there is some significance in the mention of ‘the cool of the day’ in Genesis 3, as Adam and Eve hid from God. They were beginning to feel the wind blow, the temperature dropped and life in the garden changed.

I merely surmise but they found no shelter among the trees. For the first time, they had difficulty coming into God’s presence but that’s where we need to be in order to deal with the daily rush of wild thoughts and feelings, wishes and hopes. ‘Where are you?’ calls God and as we listen to his voice, we realise where indeed we are and where we need to move to in order to let ‘that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in.’

Maybe today there is significance and meaning if we open a door, stand outside for five minutes to feel the weather pummel us and then step back inside. To think about this simple act will perhaps help us to remember that there is shelter to be found.

 ‘and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.’ Revelation 7:15 (NIV)