The Forecaster

I woke up very early this morning knowing Jim was going to leave for an out-of-state meeting and I wanted to kiss him goodbye.  When I looked out of the window, the sky was covered with gray white clouds which was an improvement over the fast moving black clouds we had yesterday afternoon with thunder and lightning cracking all around our house until our lights blew and the telephone stopped working (so sorry to all our afternoon telemarketers).  But now the morning sky gave no indication of what today's weather would be, so as soon as Jim was out the door I turned the TV on to see what the weatherman had to say.

The news was all good!  After days and days of rain and violent late afternoon storms the forecast promised sun, low humidity, moderate pollen counts, and perfect temperatures.  I hoped with all my heart that the weatherman was right this time, but I'm sure you understand why I might be a tiny bit leery of  his confident prediction.  How is it that weather people can have the most up-to-date meteorological equipment, forecast the weather with a fairly high degree of inaccuracy and go on the air the next day standing assuredly with a new weather map as though their past missteps never happened--no embarrassment, no shame, no apologies?

Then I began to think--how is that any different from me and my life?  I make plans and predictions to follow God and live a life of faith and then I suddenly veer off and my good intentions and resolutions are cast aside.  In God's Word, the apostle Paul describes this by saying, " For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing."  But later Paul gives hope when he writes,  "Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,  I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."   Because of God's love, mercy, and forgiveness, I may have a clean start and I may stand back up in the value and worth God has assigned to me--no embarrassment and no shame for past missteps and misdeeds, only hope for a new day.