High Wind Warning

It's been unusually warm here in the Pittsburgh area over the past 2 weeks. Today, a cold front is moving this way, and our weather prognosticators have issued... The High Wind Advisory! Every time we get an excessively windy day, I am reminded of a message by Jack Hayford I heard a few years ago, which greatly encouraged me, so I share it here. Hayford described a weather phenomenon called the Chinook wind. This is a warm, dry wind that descends the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains, and the name means "snow eater'. As the warm, dry, gusty wind descends down the mountain slopes, temperatures can increase many degrees in minutes! The temperature usually goes well above 30 degrees F and snow melts, while spirits soar! As the Chinook effect increases, winds reach speeds between 25 and 50 mph, and gust up to 100 mph. A strong Chinook can make a foot of snow vanish in one day. The snow partially melts, and partially evaporates in the dry wind. As the Chinook rolls over the foothills, an arch of wispy, white clouds appears in the western sky paralleling the Rocky Mountains, and looks like celestial fingers dancing across the sky.

The reason Hayford's mention of this meteorological marvel encouraged me is because it describes a frozen, hard, and seemingly unalterable situation (i.e. a foot of snow in the Rocky Mountains in the winter) being changed in a somewhat unexpected, dramatic and sudden way. He went on to point out that God can, and often does, respond to our frozen, hard and seemingly unalterable situations the same way (i.e. a house that won't sell, a financial impossibility, a debilitating illness, a hope deferred). HE breathes, and things change.

As I sit here at my computer, the winds are howling outside my window... garbage cans (not ours, Bruce...), tree limbs, Elphaba (??), and someone's morning paper are blowing away, and the power has gone out four times. And I'm encouraged once again, ...because I've been reminded that God breathes and things change, suddenly!

He sends His commands to the earth; His Word runs swiftly. He sends His Word and melts them. He stirs up His breezes and the waters flow. (Psalm 147: 15,18)