Ride the Wind

Today is a grey, wind tossed day.  August has arrived in all its windy glory, sweeping through the leaves and flattening the tall winter white grass.  Playfully it picks up little pieces of paper and throws it up in the sky, grabs it again and spins them around only to discard them again.  It rips tender blooms from their branches and tosses them about like shredded butterflies and it howls around the corners of the house like a lost puppy.
Sometimes we are also a bit like a butterfly tossed in the wind, a bit lost, without direction.  Sometimes the storm winds of Life feels as if it wants to blow us away, squeezing the life out of us, like we are just a piece of discarded paper.  The winds sweep us up high, but just as suddenly drop us way down again.  Being tossed around like that confuses us, it overwhelms us, and peace seems to elude us.
How are we to survive the stormy winds of Life?  What defence do we have against its force?  Like the wind chime in the picture above we need to be anchored.  The wind chime butterflies are securely tied to the anchor that they are suspended from.  When they are tossed about by the wind they are not blown away, they are not lost, no wind can destroy them.  Not only are they secure, but they also make a beautiful sound in the wind.  It is a sound of joy and praise.  When we are anchored in God's presence, in His hand, no storm can rip us apart, and we too will make a beautiful noise unto the Lord.
There will always be storms in Life, as in nature.  Some storms we can avoid, but others will be upon us before we realise.  However, when our strings are securely tied, we will ride the wind while we sing, we might be blown this way and that, but we'll never stray far from home, and when the calm descends again, we will still be right there under God's care and protection.