Even When the Storms Rage

This past week brought a great storm to our area, all of Israel is in need of rain so we welcome it whenever it comes. The usual trip to Carmiel which takes about twenty five minutes dragged into almost an hour as the ride home was hampered by dense fog and sheets of rain so heavy that the roads literally were awash.
It reminded us that Hashem is both a mother and a father. The good mother was providing the earth with the most important element of life...water. Then when we tuned into the news on the computer we saw that in the ravaged areas of the Indian ocean, where they had seemingly already had all the water they could possibly stand, it was also raining in torrents and hampering the relief efforts. I am sure that the people there didn't thank Hashem for the rain, in fact I wonder if their faith hasn't been tested almost to the breaking point.
Long years ago, when enduring a personal trial that challenged every belief that I had formed over my life, I remember screaming at Hashem over the conditions of my life. There was a very good friend of mine standing by my side at the time and she whispered to me, " He is present, even when the Storms Rage about us! Even when the darkness of evil in the world is almost more than we can bear, even in the most unexpected and unbelievable conditions, He is present."
The storm was fierce, the clouds dumped so much rain in such a short period of time that the steps leading down to our courtyard entry became a waterfall, rushing over the stone steps so fast that one could hardly stand up while trying to get down them, coming home we expected a dry warm house, and found that indeed it was pretty warm but the water had invaded our bedroom and living room, so today Theo is busy refitting the window seals and putting in splash guards to prevent a recurrence of this situation.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could put in a system that warned the world of any impending storms, like those suffered in the East Indian Ocean this past week? What if God had fitted the world with such a system that we would be warned ahead of time if destructive storms of nature or disease or disaster or evil was coming and all we had to do was stop and pray and that would take care of us?
Sitting here in this very spiritual place, we often talk about how evil has gotten such a strong foothold here on earth. The other evening during one of these talks, we remembered that once there was a Swami who believed that if he could get all the people on earth to sit still and meditate all at the same time for one solid hour we would call down Nervana!
We admit that this was at best, one man's idea, but...what if all of us stopped at the same time all over the world and just thought good thoughts, or prayed or chanted or read something spiritual for one hour...don't you wonder what would happen if we could accomplish that?
Even when the Storms Rage...the One who created all of this earth is present, he/she is in the thunder, the rain and Yes,even the sunami...hard to believe as it may seem, it is true.

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