A Tree in the Hurricane

Today I spent four hours driving. Generally, I leave the radio off or only listen to it as long as something is truly worthwhile. Today as I was about to give up on it, I caught a station just as it started the David Crowder song, "How He Loves Us," which has become my new obsession. Watch it here:

David Crowder, "How He Loves Us" Music Video

I tend to be more logical than sentimental or romantic about such things, but this song is for me one those where I feel it echo and resonate in the deepest parts of me, as though the Spirit of God and my spirit are in complete agreement on these truths and their application to my life.

"He is jealous for me. [His] love's like a hurricane, I am a tree, bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy..."

"When all of the sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory..."

What is a tree compared to a hurricane? We are nothing, He is everything, and to be in his presence is so satisfying as to fade out all our afflictions and suffering. Such beautiful truths...we are loved by a great being who is the central foundation for all that is good and holy and marvelous and powerful. He retained his justice while also displaying his mercy by both demanding the payment of and then providing the price for our sin (payment of sin is death, and God the Son paid that price on our behalf), so we continue as loved ones, loved by an undiminished great and holy God, our hurricane.

As the tree, I find that sometimes I am stripped down of the things I loved most, of my prized plans and dreams, or of pleasant life situations and left standing bare in the aftermath. Sometimes I feel uprooted entirely. Regardless, it is always marvelous that the God who acts upon me has also chosen to love me deeply and is so satisfying as to be able to eclipse any affliction. What a marvelous inheritance we have in Christ, and how beautifully this part of it is expressed in the song. There is nothing so challenging, so beautiful, as living in faith in Jesus Christ.