Hello, Huricane

"Loves like a hurricane. I am a tree, bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy....."

Whoa. I get it. Like, I get that line! Think about it. Really think about it. Whoa. It's incredible.

A new friend challenged me last night to ask God to show me all over again how much He loves me. Well, I was going to, but I didn't even get the chance! He knew what I needed before I asked. (as always) I listened to this song, and heard that familiar first line.But, I heard it in a new way. "Loves like a hurricane..."
I thought about it, and it blew my mind.
Let me explain for those of you who live in states like South Dakota or California or Alaska where you get blizzards or earthquakes or whatever other weird weather it is you get that isn't a hurricane....
What IS a hurricane?? 1st, LOTS of rain. Lots of it. In a hurricane, it rains and rains and rains. Sometimes, it seems like an endless amount of rain. Truly. It pours. It doesn't come and go,but it rains for days without stopping. If you go outside, there is water everywhere you see. It's clearly still falling from the sky, but anyone in Louisiana knows it doesn't just fall straight down. No, no. It becomes slanted. Even if you are under a carport or garage, you will be wet. Don't worry. In a hurricane, you canNOT escape the rain. Also, there's water on the ground and on your cars and flooding your driveway and overfilling your pond or pool and pouring from gutters and everything else you could possibly imagine. There is water truly everywhere. You can't do anything about it. No containing or controlling it.
Get that first mental image. Really get it. Sit and close your eyes if you have to. See the water everywhere.
Now, think of God's love..... Yeah. That's it. His love is everywhere. It is completely poured out on all His children. It's endless! There's lots and lots and lots of it. It doesn't just come and go based on our disobedience or rebellion or lack of love for God. It is there to stay. It floods into everything. We can't contain it or try to control it.

2nd, hurricanes are lots of wind. "and I am a tree, bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy..."
The wind in a hurricane is incredibly, extremely powerful. Huge trees bend and sway and sometimes fall. They try to remain standing on their own, but they cannot. They aren't strong enough to resist the wind. So they fall. The wind takes them over. Hurricane wind is strong. It doesn't just make trees fall. It affects everything in its path. Everything. And, it carries things away, too. Like, branches, trash, pieces of fences... It carries things away. It sounds a bit scary and dangerous, right? It is. It definitely is!
This is God's love too. God's love is incredibly powerful and overwhelming. It affects everything in its path. Even when we think we are tough and strong and good enough on our own, we can't stand up to God's love. We can fight it as much as we want, but ultimately, it will win. Always. Every single time. God's love wins. It carries us away. It takes us places we never expected to go and give us bigger dreams and better thoughts and grows us and connects us to more people. It carries us away. It carries us, in general. When I can't take one more step. When I am crawling around, too weak to do anything else. When I feel like I can't take one more breath. When I am am too tired to fight. When I want to run away. When I want to stay where I am. When I can't get anywhere. It carries me. It picks me up and carries me. And I can't do anything about it except just accept it. Just let God's love carry me.
Sometimes, just like the wind, God's love seems scary and dangerous. Sometimes God, in His love, shows us sin. He shows us what we need to do. He asks us to do scary things. He tells us to go places without even knowing all the steps. It is scary, and it's dangerous, but it is good. Because He is good.

And that goes into the last part. Hurricanes have lasting effects. Power goes out, landscapes are changed, lessons are learned. Hurricanes last. The physical effects, and the memories. Hurricanes are not easily forgotten.
God's love is the same. Once you encounter the love of God, it lasts. The effects don't wear off. You're different. Old things have been washed away and new things have come in their place. You are different. The effects, the memories, the lessons that come in an encounter of His love- they stay. They linger. His love stays. It changes you, it changes me.

I could go on and on about this analogy. I could talk about how hurricanes bring families closer, how they simplify life, and how often you just decide to play or even dance in the rain instead of hiding inside. But I won't. I think you get it.

He loves like a hurricane.