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The bad has to come with the good

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  • Originally published July 25, 2008 at 5:19 p.m., updated July 25, 2008 at 5:19 p.m.

“And God said, ‘Let the waters under the Heaven be gathered together unto one place and let the dry land appear’ and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth and the gathering together of the waters He called the seas and God saw that it was good.” – Genesis 1:9-10

Today, after watching Hurricane Dolly all week act like any thing but a lady as she hit my Texas coast, I still couldn’t get hurricane horrors out of my mind. I even wondered why, if God made everything and called it good. Why ruin it with storms upon His seas? I even stopped casting long enough to ask God about this confusing question and suddenly, I felt as if God socked me in my Soul and said, “Stop your whining and wondering long enough and I will tell you how all the lands, seas and storms really came to be.”

And God said to me, “When I first created the Earth and the seas and put them next to each other, I already had the man and the woman I would make in my mind. I knew that when they saw the Earth and the seas, they would want to play and fish in them just for fun. After all, I made them in my image and I like fun. I was worried that if the Earth and the sea just suddenly met, maybe they wouldn’t know any better and they would just step off the earth and into the sea and drown.”

“Being that ‘God is Love,’ I took the palm of my great hand and pressed it against the earth, so that the sea would be shallow first and then get slowly deeper so that even the future little boys and girls would have a safe place to play in the waves.”

“When I made the waves, they didn’t work out very well and they kept knocking my people over. Maybe I was on a power play. Don’t laugh, Elaine, remember that you are made in my image. Just like you have to do sometimes, I had to correct my mistake.”

“With the fingers of my same great hand, I dug four trenches in the sand beneath the waves. Then I took my opposing thumb, which didn’t come later, and formed an island with sand dunes that would act as a barrier for the earth behind it. Later, the fishermen and fisherwomen that I made, named the trenches ‘bars and guts’ and, not showing much creativity, they called my barrier island, “The Barrier Island.”

“Then I realized that if everything I had made was good, safe and fun, who would need Me. That’s how hurricanes came about. They keep us close.

Dear Lord, I sure didn’t know all of that, but it really makes a lot of sense. It has been the storms that blew into my life that have made me know that You are my lighthouse, guiding me slowly into Your safe harbor of the heaven You also prepared for me and the rest of your people.



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