Shelter In The Storm

The Lord is Merciful beyond measure; He will not put upon us troubles harder to bear than we are able.
At times, He puts us through sorrow and difficulty to draw us closer to Him, or to teach us some lesson that we could not learn any other way.
But so many times, He shelters and spares us from danger and sorrow of world-shaking (at least, our world) proportions, and we do not even realize it. And when we do, many times we do not even think to thank Him.

This past week, Clinton, MS, has been in the news because of the tornadoes it has been experiencing.
Toby, Lindy's boyfriend and one of our dear young men friends of our College group (he also played the part of the "Friend" in "Lost Or Found"), is big into tennis, and has been traveling around to all kinds of places for tournaments with his tennis scholarship.
He was in Clinton for a tournament this past week, and was telling us Sunday of looking out the window of his hotel and watching the tornado, and cars being flipped on the highway as it went through. The buildings on either side of where he was were either damaged or destroyed.
I made the comment later to Mom, that I wondered if the hotel where he was would have been destroyed too, if he hadn't been there in it!

Uncle Alvin's have been down visiting for a few days, and today Mom was telling them about it. I was busy around, and was only listening with 'half my brain', until Mom asked The Grandmother what the verse was that the situation had reminded Mom of? Something about, 'lest we should have sorrow upon sorrow'?

I stopped short to listen, and it hit me suddenly like a 'ton of bricks', as they say:
Toby could have been killed!

Dear Toby, who we've nicknamed "The Little Missionary" because of his rather shy ways, but passion for the salvation of his lost friends.
It had not hit me like that Sunday.

Though he would be in the presence of Christ ("...which is far better:" Phil. 1:23), oh what sorrow it would be for us who were left behind! How we would miss him!

And how gracious the Lord is - He made a shelter in the storm, and protected this dear son, brother, friend, for the sake of those who love him.

Here is the verse Mom was talking about:

"For indeed he was ... nigh unto death: but God had mercy on him; and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow."

Phil. 2:27

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