HAMPSTEAD, N.C. (BP)–We pay a certain price to live along the East Coast. One of those costs is enduring a very high rate of thunderstorm activity.
One day recently, lightning struck my favorite tree. It was an ancient pine that had survived more than its share of hurricanes and lesser storms. It stood tall and straight in my back yard and almost single-handedly shaded the entire space. When I went to work the next morning, I discovered that the same storm had produced another lightning strike which defied two surge protection systems and ruined the church office computer as well. Incredibly, two days later, another storm raced through the area and hit the power grid again. This time, it fried my laptop, which was in the pastor’s office, and damaged the replacement computer which had already been set up in the church office.
So, I’ve been asking, “Lord, are you trying to tell me something — I mean, besides to unplug everything?” I believe the answer to that is, “Yes.”
First, these events have reminded me of the sovereignty of God. He alone is in control of all things. He alone is immortal and indestructible. When someone or something is under His protection, then nothing can come against it. But when in the wisdom of God, He determines that its time has come, no scheme devised on earth can protect it.
My laptop, for instance, was a provision of God. When I entered the Ph.D. program at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in 2003, someone who had known me for about a week gave it to me. Brand new, it was an answer to prayer. This individual called me up and in essence told me, “If you are going back to school, you’ll need a good computer. I’ve ordered one for you that will be here this week. I’ll drop it by the office.” Well, he did and the laptop was my constant companion during three years of coursework and another year of writing my dissertation. It served perfectly until God took it away as unexpectedly as He had originally provided it. I am comforted to know that I live under the protection and control of a sovereign, omnipotent and flawless God.
Second, God has reminded me how foolish it is to seek to cling to the things of this world. All the insurance, caution and surge protectors on the planet cannot alter a basic reality: We are made for eternity and our stuff is not. The computers, of course, can be quickly replaced.
My pine tree is a different story. It cannot be fixed or replaced, at least not in my lifetime. It will take generations before another can rise to replace it. I won’t be able to sit on the back porch in the shade anymore. The picnic table underneath it will have to be moved. The squirrels will not be able to use it to reach the birdfeeder. The dog and cat can’t talk, but I am sure they are both disconsolate at the thought of the loss of shade. After all, they spend almost all their lives doing little more than sleeping there.
But when we cut it down, I think maybe we’ll leave the stump for awhile. It will serve to remind us that the things we should value most are eternal, not temporal. Even that which seems most stable and secure in life can be taken away in an instant.
That thought should not lead us to despair. Instead, let it lead us to hear afresh what Jesus said: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21, NASB).
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Paul Brewster Sr. is pastor of Barlow Vista Baptist Church in Hampstead, N.C.
