Deotion March 13, 2019
16/03/19 17:17
Greetings!
>>
>> It was a bit foggy this morning and that reminded me again of the fog in Galveston when I was there a month or so ago. Fog like I had never seen or experienced before. Fog literally so thick you could not see your hand in front of your face - depending of course on how far from your face you were holding your hand but you really didn’t have to hold it too far in order not to see it.
>>
>> My daughter and I first noticed the fog when we rented our car and left the airport in Houston. It was a little foggy but nothing to really raise one’s worry radar, but as the evening progressed and it began to get dark the fog got thicker and thicker and thicker and thicker and I am not exaggerating and I would probably add a couple more thickers to the list and still not really give you the scope of this fog.
>>
>> Being the excellent driver she is, my daughter managed to get us to the hotel through the fog and rain with even a stop at What-a-Burger (we had to take in the local culture!) and Target along the way although it was pretty difficult even seeing these places so the fact she found them was pretty remarkable.
>>
>> What was even more remarkable about this fog is that it never left. I’m use to fog that burns off (wonder where that term ‘burns off’ in relation to fog came from cause it doesn’t really burn?) during the day. This fog did not let up one iota during the day. You couldn’t see anything, literally, off the balcony of the hotel - just a gray wall; walking to our conference was pretty tricky because there were streets to cross where you really couldn’t see; fog, dense, dense fog.
>>
>> About 3 days into this fog devastation the weather was actually warm enough for me to sit out on the balcony, not that there was any view because all you could see was this dense fog, but I had a break in the classes and being outside instead of inside seemed like the thing to do. And the most amazing thing happened - I’m not even sure I can do it justice in describing this event.
>>
>> So I am sitting on the balcony, drinking a cup of coffee, staring at the fog when all of a sudden the temperature just changed - it was almost instantaneous, like someone dumping a bucket of ice over you. Bam! Warm then Cold - real cold. I was so amazed that I sat there in the cold for a few minutes trying to figure out what was going on. And then, I noticed the fog moving. It was literally like a hand was pushing the fog out to sea. The colder it got the more the fog moved. Not like a lifting up but literally a pushing out. You could see this wall of fog moving, and the farther away it got the colder the air became and with only a slight break, there came rain. So before my eyes I watched this wall of fog - which was still a wall - move out over the horizon, with a little break in between, followed closely by this wall of rain and this chilling cold.
>>
>> I have to admit this was the most bizarre thing I have ever witnessed. In literally the span of about 20 minutes, the fog left and went over the horizon, the temperature dropped dramatically, the rain came - and the good news was I could now see the sea and the waves and the sand on the shore and the edge of my balcony.
>>
>> It took rain and cold, but the fog was gone…..
>>
>> This happens so often in our lives. We just can’t see clearly and we pray to God to help us see and understand and to know. We ask God to give us some type of clarity - or at least some peace to help us with the fog that surrounds our thoughts and our thinking and our emotions.
>>
>> But way too often this clarity and this understanding and this peace comes only after we have had to go through something that has been very difficult; something has happened to cause us stress or grief or has hurt our heart. And in that grief or that stress or that hurt, we begin to feel the presence of God like we never had before.
>>
>> There comes this feeling of God surrounding us and what it took to open our senses to his presence was trauma and sadness and problems….
>>
>> No one wants to experience something difficult in their lives; no one wants to go through times of weariness and grim darkness - but often that is the very path that will take us to being able to truly see God in our lives.
>>
>> Amen!
>>
>> It was a bit foggy this morning and that reminded me again of the fog in Galveston when I was there a month or so ago. Fog like I had never seen or experienced before. Fog literally so thick you could not see your hand in front of your face - depending of course on how far from your face you were holding your hand but you really didn’t have to hold it too far in order not to see it.
>>
>> My daughter and I first noticed the fog when we rented our car and left the airport in Houston. It was a little foggy but nothing to really raise one’s worry radar, but as the evening progressed and it began to get dark the fog got thicker and thicker and thicker and thicker and I am not exaggerating and I would probably add a couple more thickers to the list and still not really give you the scope of this fog.
>>
>> Being the excellent driver she is, my daughter managed to get us to the hotel through the fog and rain with even a stop at What-a-Burger (we had to take in the local culture!) and Target along the way although it was pretty difficult even seeing these places so the fact she found them was pretty remarkable.
>>
>> What was even more remarkable about this fog is that it never left. I’m use to fog that burns off (wonder where that term ‘burns off’ in relation to fog came from cause it doesn’t really burn?) during the day. This fog did not let up one iota during the day. You couldn’t see anything, literally, off the balcony of the hotel - just a gray wall; walking to our conference was pretty tricky because there were streets to cross where you really couldn’t see; fog, dense, dense fog.
>>
>> About 3 days into this fog devastation the weather was actually warm enough for me to sit out on the balcony, not that there was any view because all you could see was this dense fog, but I had a break in the classes and being outside instead of inside seemed like the thing to do. And the most amazing thing happened - I’m not even sure I can do it justice in describing this event.
>>
>> So I am sitting on the balcony, drinking a cup of coffee, staring at the fog when all of a sudden the temperature just changed - it was almost instantaneous, like someone dumping a bucket of ice over you. Bam! Warm then Cold - real cold. I was so amazed that I sat there in the cold for a few minutes trying to figure out what was going on. And then, I noticed the fog moving. It was literally like a hand was pushing the fog out to sea. The colder it got the more the fog moved. Not like a lifting up but literally a pushing out. You could see this wall of fog moving, and the farther away it got the colder the air became and with only a slight break, there came rain. So before my eyes I watched this wall of fog - which was still a wall - move out over the horizon, with a little break in between, followed closely by this wall of rain and this chilling cold.
>>
>> I have to admit this was the most bizarre thing I have ever witnessed. In literally the span of about 20 minutes, the fog left and went over the horizon, the temperature dropped dramatically, the rain came - and the good news was I could now see the sea and the waves and the sand on the shore and the edge of my balcony.
>>
>> It took rain and cold, but the fog was gone…..
>>
>> This happens so often in our lives. We just can’t see clearly and we pray to God to help us see and understand and to know. We ask God to give us some type of clarity - or at least some peace to help us with the fog that surrounds our thoughts and our thinking and our emotions.
>>
>> But way too often this clarity and this understanding and this peace comes only after we have had to go through something that has been very difficult; something has happened to cause us stress or grief or has hurt our heart. And in that grief or that stress or that hurt, we begin to feel the presence of God like we never had before.
>>
>> There comes this feeling of God surrounding us and what it took to open our senses to his presence was trauma and sadness and problems….
>>
>> No one wants to experience something difficult in their lives; no one wants to go through times of weariness and grim darkness - but often that is the very path that will take us to being able to truly see God in our lives.
>>
>> Amen!