fabulousromancandle:

Among the huge Atlantic-waves of bereavement, poverty, temptation, and reproach, we learn the power of Jehovah, because we feel the littleness of man. Thank God, then, if you have been led by a rough road: it is this which has given you your experience of God’s greatness and lovingkindness. Your troubles have enriched you with a wealth of knowledge to be gained by no other means: your trials have been the cleft of the rock in which Jehovah has set you, as he did his servant Moses, that you might behold his glory as it passed by. Praise God that you have not been left to the darkness and ignorance which continued prosperity might have involved, but that in the great fight of affliction, you have been capacitated for the outshinings of his glory in his wonderful dealings with you.

—Spurgeon

This passage instantly reminded me of Christmas day. From the literal waves to the dealing with tribulations, it fits perfectly: to escape some of the misery that night, I had walked for an hour and a half, stopping by the snow-covered beach to hear Lake Superior’s frigid waves crash on the shore. The cold was as shocking as the reminder of God’s power that shouted to me in the icy pounding. I laughed at the ridiculousness of it all—alone in the pitch black, Christmas night, eyes streaming and cheeks stinging from the wind—and remembered the whole life-vs.-eternity idea and why we’re here in the first place. That sent me home freezing and joyful.

“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” —C.S. Lewis

…and a deaf Juliann. I’m thankful my hearing is on the mend! Of course, it still requires frequent check-ups with the Great Physician… Okay—pun over (and out).