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A clear sky. Low around 70F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.

Andrew Schroer writes a faith column for the Victoria Advocate.

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They say that if you don’t like the weather in our part of Texas, just a wait a few minutes. It will change.

After one of the hottest, driest summers in recent memory, God has suddenly turned on the faucet. The cracks in the ground are disappearing. Everything is turning green.

The other day something happened which hasn’t happened to me in a long time. I got caught in a torrential downpour while driving. Day seemed to turn to night. Visibility became a problem. I slowed to crawl, put on my hazards, and prayed that nobody would run into me.

Eventually, as I came out of the storm, I could see sunlight peeking through the darkness. The cadence of rain on my windshield slowed. Before I knew it, the sun was once again shining and I was through the storm.

But then I looked in my rearview mirror. Though I was now enveloped in bright sunlight, in the mirror I could see the darkness which lay behind me.

“I am so glad I am out of that,” I thought to myself.

The storms of life take many forms – Leukemia, divorce, mounting bills, problems at work. And when we are in the middle of the storm, sometimes it feels like it is never going to end. Sometimes it feels like it’s never going to get any better.

The churches which the Apostle Paul began during his first missionary journey found themselves in a storm. Their family and friends had rejected them for being Christian. They were being persecuted, beaten up and even arrested.

So Paul and his buddy Barnabas decided to visit each congregation individually to encourage them. “We must go through many hardships,” they told their beleaguered brothers, “to enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). Every time I read that verse, one thought always goes through my head.

That doesn’t sound very encouraging.

Paul and Barnabas were basically saying, “It’s going to be hard. It’s going to stink. It’s going to hurt.” Again, that doesn’t sound very encouraging to me.

But there is one very important word in that verse – the word “through.” On our way to heaven, we are going through the storms. No matter how bad the storm, it is only temporary.

If we look back on our lives, we know that. One way or another, God has always gotten us through. We’ve all had dark days in our lives, but now we can look back and see the darkness in the rearview mirror.

You, however, may still be in your storm. Some storms last longer than others. Yet, even if a storm lasts the rest of our lives, we are still only going “through” it, because we are on our way to heaven. Because Jesus suffered the storm of God’s anger over our sins in our place, we are forgiven. All those who believe in Jesus are on the road to heaven.

And in heaven there are no storms. In heaven, the darkness will forever be in the rearview mirror.

So when you find yourself beaten and battered by the winds and the rains of life, remember that the storms of this life are only temporary. The sun will eventually come out. God will get you through.

One day, the darkness will be in the rearview mirror.

Pastor Andrew Schroer has been a pastor for over 20 years and is currently serving at Redeemer Lutheran Church with campuses in Edna and Victoria, Texas. Read more of his devotional writing and contact him at 364DaysofThanksgiving.com. His new book “364 Days of Devotion” is now available on amazon.com.

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