Stormy weather

Harbour wall at Arbroath, Scotland

Yesterday, heavy rain descended causing problems with our rivers and on our roads. Today the sea battered against the shoreline in Arbroath causing unwary bystanders to be soaked.

Stormy times batter our days.

The words of this hymn turn us in the direction of God's presence in the storms:-

God hath not promised skies always blue,

Flower strewn pathways all our lives through;

God hath not promised sun without rain,

Joy without sorrow, peace without pain.

God hath not promised we shall not know

Toil and temptation, trouble and woe;

He hath not told us we shall not bear

Many a burden, many a care.

God hath not promised smooth roads and wide,

Swift, easy travel, needing no guide;

Never a mountain rocky and steep,

Never a river turbid and deep.

But God hath promised strength for the day,

Rest for the labor, light for the way,

Grace for the trials, help from above,

Unfailing sympathy, undying love.

All weathers nourish souls

The child remembered how when she was a very little child she had sympathized with the grey sea.

The blue sea was a happy sea.

The green sea, when the waves thereof tossed themselves and roared, was a triumphant sea.

But the grey sea looked anxious.

So the child was sorry for the grey sea.

Grey weather she abhorred.

Something of this feeling was with her still.

Grey weather was not among the things for which she gave thanks.

Then God her father said to her:

All weathers nourish souls.

                                                                                                                    Amy Carmichael