And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven.” This expression, “Yet once more,” denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
Hebrews 12:26-27
There are things we experience in life that shake us to the point that it may seem we will never be able to stand again.
Tornadoes and hurricanes rip through our towns bending and twisting once proudly standing buildings and trees, volcanoes erupt and lava spews forth covering once green lush grass with hot dark lava and ash destroying buildings, earthquakes literally shake the ground from underneath our feet cracking open the earth and destruction and death tolls and injuries rise.
Jobs that we have worked at for years, steadily able to count on to provide an income to support our families, suddenly close the doors. Health that had been ours to claim all our life is ripped away from us in one routine check-up as the words come out of the attending physician’s mouth. Loved ones that had always been there to offer us support and encouragement move away or pass from this earth. Families that had always appeared to be strong and solid crumble and divide and those inside the family as well as those on the outside watching the destruction now fear the same outcome for their own.
Yes, there are things we experience in life that shake us to the point that it may seem we will never be able to stand again. Shakings that don’t just shake the earth but shake us to the very core of our souls.
These shakings come… yet they are not without purpose.
The shaking is to reveal to us the things that we should never try to stand on. It is in the midst of the shaking that we realize that we had put so much trust in something that could be shaken. It is after the shaking that we see what and Who remains.
But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:13
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for He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,”
Hebrews 13:5
After the last Oklahoma tornadoes my nine year old asked, “Momma, does God cause the tornadoes?“
For a moment, my human thinking of “good” almost took over and I almost desired to say “oh no, honey God is good and loves us and He had nothing to do with the tornadoes” but what does that answer leave my daughter with?
It leaves my daughter with the wrong view of her God. It leaves my daughter with a god that sits on a white, fluffy, clouded throne wringing his hands and rubbing his forehead walking around with an “oh dear me what am I going to do now” look on his face.
That is not her God.
So to my child I replied, God doesn’t have to cause the tornadoes. Tornadoes and hurricanes and other storms are all a result of the fall and sin in the world. Remember that sin did not just enter Adam and Eve, it entered the whole world. Only God knows if He caused the tornadoes, but we can always know that He does have to allow them. We just have to remember who God is and know that if He allows them He has a purpose. One purpose is that He uses them to remind us that this world is dying. He uses them to remind us why we need Jesus. Destruction and death is a result of sin, but God is able to take these and use even them for good.
Yes, the shakings come.
My husband and I had a Japanese Maple once in the front yard of a house we used to own. One day this Japanese Maple out of no where shook all its leaves off. We thought it was dead.
You see, it had been being attacked by Japanese beetles and my husband had put poison on the tree to protect the tree from the beetles that were trying to kill it. The tree’s response to the poison was to shake all its leaves off. The tree stood there naked with all its leaves off and dead around it and the tree itself appeared dead to us. In our attempt to save the tree from its enemy we thought we had killed it.
However, that was not the case. Within a week the tree burst forth with new buds of life. The tree sprouted new brighter stronger leaves and now its enemies were gone. The tree continued now to stand tall and beautiful in our front yard.
What appeared to be death and defeat to us was actually victory and life.
Sometimes God sees enemies that we don’t.
Sometimes His poisoning of those enemies cause us to shake all our leaves off in response.
Sometimes we appear to be standing there with all the destruction and defeat and death around us… but in reality we are about to burst forth in new life and stand stronger and taller that we ever imagined we could.
for we walk by faith, not by sight—
2 Corinthians 5:7