The past few days have been pretty chaotic. This was my first Easter to not go to church with my family because of the whole pandemic going on in our world. That is already strange enough. We aren't waking up early to get dressed all nice to go to our church service, have our easter lunch, and take nice pictures. I knew my Easter was going to be different this year, but it was more than I expected. It's Sunday at seven in the morning. I hear a loud siren noise, then realize it is the tornado sirens. Before I have a second to even think, my mom comes running into my room and my brother's room insisting and motioning to run to her closet. I was scared because I sleep right next to a huge glass door. Barely awake, I jump out of bed, grab some sweatpants, my phone, and my teddy bear, then rush to the closet. We sat in there a little under an hour, and my little brother was terrified. Our pool in our backyard started to flood, and even my bedroom floor got a little water in it. Luckily, my dad handled all of that, and got the water to drain. My dad told us he had been praying during all of this happening. No tornados hit, and it was all good. After the storm passed, my family watched our church service live on the tv and sang worship songs. It all worked out smoothly. Later, I fell asleep in my parents bed for about three hours. I guess I was just exhausted from being up so early with not much sleep. A little while after my nap, wind started to pick up. The weather got bad again, just when we thought it was all over. It was really just super windy at this point. My family went outside in the front yard and observed everything. I looked up in the sky and there was a pretty rainbow. I immediately ran inside, grabbed my camera, and snapped a picture. Then I started to think about it. The rainbow represents God's promise. I thought about all the off and on chaos happening this day, and I realized God put this rainbow in the sky for a reason. It made me feel peace. It made me feel reminded to trust God, and trust that He works all things out for His good. When I went back inside I found the scripture about what the rainbow symbolizes.
Genesis 9:11-17(NLT) says, ''Yes I am confirming my covenant with you. Never again will floodwaters kill all living creatures; never again will a flood destroy the earth. Then God said, I am giving you a sign and all living creatures, for all generations to come. I have placed my rainbow in the clouds. It is the sign of my covenant with you and all the earth. When I send clouds over the earth, the rainbow will appear in the clouds, and I will remember my covenant with you and all living creatures. Never again will the floodwaters destroy all life. When I see the rainbow in the clouds, I will remember the eternal covenant between God and every living creature on earth. Then God said to Noah, Yes this rainbow is a sign of the covenant I am confirming with all the creatures on earth.''
I was truly amazed. This was so beautiful to see on Easter Sunday. I started to reflect everything we learned this morning in our church service. Christ is risen. Luke 24:6 He is not here; He is risen! He is alive, and He is alive in us today. His promise still stands to this day, like the rainbow symbolizes. His love is abundant. We are forgiven. Many years ago, He paid it all on the cross. He freed us from the burden of sin. The shackles and chains that bound us to our past were defeated by the ultimate victor. The Savior of the world was mocked, spit on, crowned with thorns, beaten in front of many, nailed to a cross, and crucified. He endured so much pain and suffering, because He loves us. If I learned anything this easter, it is that life is precious. Who knows. A tornado could have swept through my house, and I could have died. Life is gone in the blink of an eye compared to eternity. I once heard in a sermon, imagine a bird picking up a grain of sand on mount everest, flying across the entire world to put it down, and doing this over and over until mount everest is completely moved across the world. Imagine how long that would take. Eternity is a million times that. A man from my church that played guitar on our worship team passed away Easter Sunday from a tree falling on his car from the wind and weather. All this really made me realize life is precious. My pastor said in our lesson, ''The more you make the world about you, the more miserable you will be.'' I thought about this and how true it is. It's because it's meant to be all about Him and His glory. Like my favorite verse John 3:30 says, "He must become greater and greater; I must become less and less.'' When we begin living for something much greater than ourselves, we will experience His true resurrection powers. So love and appreciate the life you are given. God has a purpose for your life, and He loves you so much. Your life is made for His glory. Let's start living for something much greater than ourselves!!
Now that's not the end to my story believe it or not. I went to sleep Sunday night, and it was still extremely windy. I woke up the next morning sweating and confused why my fan turned off. It took me a second to notice the power went out overnight from the wind. The entire day, I pulled out my old mario games and played them with my brother so my phone wouldn't lose it's charge. Later, my dad's friend let us borrow his generator. We just got a bunch of groceries, so we connected the generator to the fridge to keep our food from going bad. Down the road, our church had power, even though our house did not. My youth pastor called my dad and told us we are welcome to use the church to cook dinner in the kitchen and have some electricity. That is just what we did. We drove up to the church, and my mom made us some fish sticks and mac and cheese. I danced all across the church lobby leaping around and rolling on the floor. My mom told me to calm down because we are in ''God's house", and I said ''but mom he turns my mourning into dancing.'' I thought I was so funny okay okay. Then even later, I drove to my uncle's house who had power. I took a warm shower, and freshened up. This was all so nice, but I could have gone without it. I didn't necessarily need any of this. We all would have been just fine without electricity overtime, but God blessed us. Here again, God teaches me another lesson! As if Easter wasn't enough, He needed one more crazy day to happen to show me how merciful and great He really is. In the midst of all the craziness, God provides, and that is just what He did. Sunday morning He provided protection over my life and my family. He provided the rainbow in the sky as a reminder of His promise. He literally opened up His church to my family, so we could cook a nice meal. Then he did it again! He provided a place for me to take a warm shower, even though I could have settled with a cold shower. Philippians 4:19 says, ''And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from His glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.'' God really does provide.
