Calm in the Chaos

As I drove Chloe to work early this morning,

I marvelled once again at the beauty of God's creation.

The sky awash with colour. Pinks and blues interspersed with wispy, white clouds.

I came home, wanting only one thing. To commune with God in nature. To take time to sit and praise God for

 His creation and for His blessings.

Now, I don't live in the most appealing neighbourhood. I am surrounded by houses of every different shape and size and state of repair or disrepair. Overgrown gardens, weeds abounding, trees stripped bare of their leaves because of a recent prolonged stay of a colony of bats. Power lines criss crossing overhead.

But, as I sat on the verandah, reading and praying, I began to see calm in the chaos. I watched hawks soar overhead. I saw a pretty little kingfisher flit from branch to branch. A colourful honeyeater joined him on the power line for a chat. The sun made its way from the tops of the trees, down to the ground in a 

display of light and colour.

And my senses were not just overwhelmed with sight, but also sound. In the midst of the noise of a town waking up, cars passing by, dogs barking, people walking by, there were calming sounds. The call of various birds. The 'arc arc' of a crow. 

The wind whistling through the trees.

And somehow, in the chaos, came a calm. I find it amazing that God can bring peace and calm in the most ordinary places. I don't have to be in the middle of a desert, or climbing a mountain by a flowing stream, or making my way through a dense rainforest to feel close to God. These things are beautiful and definitely bring a sense of the awesomeness of God,

 but God can bring calm in the chaos.

All around us life rushes by and we are carried along by its rapid flow, not able to swim away from the swirling current, not able to take a breath, but God is there and 

He knows how to bring the calm.

The calm comes when we take the time to see beyond the chaos

and see the beauty that lies there.

When we stop and breathe in the sights and sounds and tune out of the chaos and into the calm, God speaks to us 

and shows us his greatness.

We know that God speaks in the storm. Sometimes he doesn't choose to still the storm around us, He chooses to still us. 

To quiet our hearts.

To bring peace despite the storm.

God has chosen to place me in the centre of a noisy and 'ugly' neighbourhood, but He knows that if I take the time, I can see beauty all around me. Maybe if I lived in a place of utter beauty, I would begin to take God's creation for granted and not 

look for those little glimpses of colour and light.

By living where I live, I have to continually look up. Up above the rooftops, up above the power lines, up above the tree level. And up towards heaven. A continual looking up. A looking to Him. Not living under the circumstances, but rising above them.

God can bring calm in the chaos and peace in the storm. We just need to still our hearts and open our ears and our eyes and let him show us his marvellous works.

Job 12:7 – 10

But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee;

and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee:

Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee:

and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee.

Who knoweth not in all these that the hand 

of the Lord hath wrought this?

In whose hand is the soul of every living thing,

 and the breath of all mankind.

“Oh, but surely, everything that comes from the hand of such a Master-artist as God has something in it of himself!.... There are lovely spots on this fair globe which ought to make even a blasphemer devout. I have said, among the mountains, ”He who sees no God here is mad.” There are things that God has made which overwhelm with a sense of his omnipotence: how can men see them, and doubt the existence of the Deity?” 

Charles Spurgeon