{to know}

It's a rainy day in Houston today.  The sky is grey and the whole city seems to be moving a little slower.

Most people think I'm crazy for this, but my favorite kinds of days are cold, dreary, grey and rainy days.  (I sort of blame it on the three years I spent in Chicago, during which time I probably just started liking grey days as a coping mechanism so I wouldn't go crazy.)  There's something comforting about the rain.  It has a way of slowing the world down a bit.  Since it's a part of life that no one can control, it affects everyone equally.  The drive into work is a little shower and everyone's moods seem to be a little calmer.  The rain melts away the typically frazzled demeanor I carry and replaces it with one that's somehow more patient and more gentle and more kind.

The rain reminds me that our amazing Creator is and will always be in control of the universe.  It reminds me of the story of Noah--a story from which I draw two reminders about God's character:  (1)  God is so powerful.  He is able, with a single swipe of his hand, to destroy the Earth if he wants.  Yet (2)  He is also merciful to spare those who seek Him.  He saw Noah's heart and, as Noah's Father, knew that Noah loved Him.   

It's human nature for parents to often feel disconnected from their children, especially parents with teenagers (oh yes, I remember being a teenager and wanting to be independent and not share things with my parents).  Parents may know what activities their children are involved in and what their favorite color is, but they often are limited in their ability to know their children's hearts, their desires, their struggles and their victories.  It's simply human nature.  Even in the best of parent-child relationships, there is only so much of a person's life that another person can truly understand.  But God knows us.

{For you created my inmost being; 

   you knit me together in my mother’s womb.}

Psalm 139:13

He is able to break that boundary of communication that is otherwise limited by our humanness.  He knows even our inmost being because He created it.  Today, on this dark and dreary day, I seek to know more of God's character.  I, like Noah, am only a simple and unworthy creature, living at the mercy of my mighty and powerful Father.  But He knows me.  He cares about my life and my future, because He created me in his image.  And, as his child, He cares whether I make it out of the flood alive.  No, there will never be another literal flood of the whole Earth--God promised us that.  But everyday, we are surrounded by sin and evil, just like Noah was, and that same sin and evil destroys people everyday just like it did in the Old Testament.   God didn't destroy those people because he didn't like the color of their skin or the accent they carried.  He destroyed them because they chose sin.  Everyday we have the chance to choose God and to help bring others with us to His kingdom.  Noah chose to be faithful and God rewarded him by allowing him to make it out of the flood alive.  What will you choose today?