I got stuck out in the rain today. I stood covered while it poured around me, deluging the park, playground and track where I had been running. I stopped and was thankful for the refuge I found, but wondering when it would be clear again for a run home. I just wanted to make it home fairly dry.It has been dry in Texas lately, but at times it feels like it is storming all around me–one more report of senseless murder, unending conflict, more hostilities and real life flooding. I can get soaked in it and feel helpless. It is overwhelming. It is not just in the news, but it surrounds me in the disappointments, fragmented relationships and broken pieces of life that remind me of the “in-between” I reside in. It gushes in and steals the peace and calm I so long for.  Yes, it is pouring outside.

In the storm that wages around me each day, like a battle being fought, God provides a place of refuge.  He invites me to be covered and protected from all that attempts to steal true life from me. “He will cover you with His pinions, and under His wings you may seek refuge.” (Psalm 91:4) God invites me to come under His wings instead of rushing out into the storm. Under His wings is a place of safety, protection and security from the storms.

His wings are also a place of shelter for my mind and heart. Doubt and distraction try to take me out from under His shelter. As I remember things like, “Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1Thessalonians 5:16-18), it keeps me under His wings. It helps me to trust in Him, sheltering my mind and heart.

Under His wings is a place of protection from the enemy that would like to bribe me into coming out into the storm, leaving this place of protection.  God says as we stay under His wings, the battle will wage around us, but we will not be approached.  We stay protected under His wings.
It is pouring.  It is going to keep pouring.  But under his wings I can stay dry. It is going to pour for a long time…. but one day all things will be restored.

Today I pause in the rain, and look up into the big raindrops and remember His wings.  I am so thankful for His wings. I am thankful He provides a refuge, a shelter and protection.  As I give thanks, I feel like I am under His wings.

The rain is letting up a little. It is not so brown in Texas right now. As I pause, and listen, I hear even now a bird singing.