In the Cyclone

         The past couple of months, a lot of our lives have changed especially with the effects of COVID-19, but each of us individually as well with our own personal journeys with perhaps a new diagnosis, a loss of a loved one, confronting our demons, or whatever we may be dealing with in the silence that is not hidden from the Lord.  I have had time to personally reflect on me and my families past few weeks with the intensive care of my grandma, Grandma Hummel, and her passing.  I pray and hope that you can gain encouragement and strength in the midst of your cyclone that you may be facing or going through.  I have scriptures at the end that I pray you can spend some time with that will fill you with God’s peace and hope for a future to prosper you. Though you may feel you are in the center of a cyclone, be assured that it will not persist and your are coming out better equipped, prepared and stronger thank you know.

Grandma Hummel passes away peaceful on March 18^th in her home just as she wished.  Weeks leading up to this day, I felt like I had been in the center of a cyclone.  I began to research on websites and gleaned this information from them where I found that cyclones are “difficult to predict” despite the latest technology available of satellites and weather radars.   Cyclones can “suddenly weaken or strengthen depending upon the conditions.  A cyclone emerges when environmental conditions of “warm moist air above the ocean rises.”  "Storms form when the water is 80 degrees Fahrenheit or better.” This is like fuel on a fire.  "A cyclone weakens when it passes over land where it loses the warm moist air."  As I used this term of feeling like I was in the middle of a cyclone, I didn’t realize what conditions were needed or the environment necessary for a cyclone to form.

I began to reflect on how my personal cyclone formed and brewed for these past few weeks, which typically they say a cyclone only lasts 3-7 days.  However, the largest recorded cyclone was “Ginger in 1971 that lasted for 30 days.”

The warning signs of a cyclone reported in the heraldtribune.com is that: “1.  the barometer will fall slightly, 2. wind is around 11mph, 3. the ocean swell is about 13 feet and increasing, 4. the waves come more frequently, seconds apart, 5. a large mass of white cirrus clouds appear.  As the veil of clouds approaches, it covers more of the horizon.” (Internet source, May 13, 2007)

           The Meaning of Barometer according to Wikepedia is "an instrument that measures atmosphere pressure in forecasting the weather and determining altitude. [Something that reflects changes in circumstances or opinions.]  with weather when the barometric pressure drops it typically means that bad weather is coming such as rain or even snow if it is cold enough.  Our bodies especially joints can even feel and detect when the barometric pressure drops before bad weather."  From the directorthocare.com it defines “barometric pressure as the weight of the atmosphere that surrounds us.”

                For me and my family, the barometric pressure definitely shifted with the decline of grandma’s health that happened quickly.  We definitely felt the pressures from the atmosphere that was weighing upon us as we heard the medical news of the seriousness of grandma’s chronic illness of cancer that was in stage 4 throughout a lot of her body.  Grandma too was feeling the weight of the barometric pressure against her body that could not withstand medical intervention, but only preparing her for comfort care in her home. We did not know how long this storm would last, but we knew we had to weather the storm with grandma despite our own heaviness and weight of this news, the reality, the sacrifices and the strain that 24/7 care would have on our family.  We are now in the center of the cyclone.

                Our family is feeling the winds of adversity as we begin her care.  When the wind shifts another way, we are feeling the presence of the Holy Spirit that is leading, guiding and carrying us through this storm.  Between the winds of adversity and the winds of the Holy Spirit with us, our bodies feel the effects of the elements that is beating against us.  However, the wind of presence of the Holy Spirit is more prominent and strengthening us in a way unimaginable that is carrying us through this storm that is allowing us to not only meet grandmas needs, but our own as well.

                As the winds blew, it caused huge waves to form that tried to sweep us off our feet with discouragement, weariness, frustrations, and exhaustion.  In the middle of the storm, our family held firm and tight to the truth of God’s word, promises and grandma’s wishes.  We did not waiver from that despite the adversity of the atmospheric pressure, the battling winds, and the raging ocean waves.  God made us like a lighthouse on a solid rock foundation that withstood the beating of the elements.  It was nothing that we had done, but how God had already prepared us and sat us on His firm foundation making us immovable and unshakeable.  God had gone before us and God was surely with us.  He was our help in a time of trouble, and He knew that we trusted in Him despite what our circumstance looked like in the storm.  (Nahum 1:7-9)

                They say that it gets the darkest before your breakthrough.  We watched, waited, and agonized with grandma as she gasped for air and eventually became unresponsive to us.  The storm would not let up.  The winds and crashing of the waves around us came more frequently and with more intensity.  Our hearts were heavy watching grandma suffer in this way.  I use the word suffer, because it appeared that way to us.  However, before she became unresponsive, she always responded to us that she was not in any pain.  The suffering we witnessed was the laboring of her breaths, her motionless and unable to now speak or move.  We know the inevitable is coming of her eminent death, we just did not know the hour or time.  We too are having a Garden of Gethsemane experience like Jesus which is aligning our will to God’s will in this moment and situation.  Just like Jesus knew His death was eminent, so too was grandma’s.  God was aligning our will to release and let go of grandma so she could transition from this earth to heaven.

                The reality of the clouds now set in over the horizon.  Our prayers changed from healing grandma and to make her well, to God please do not allow her to suffer like this for too long.  Please God take her peacefully.

                Then the breakthrough came.  The barometric pressure in the atmosphere began to rise.  It no longer felt as heavy a burden because we were now surrendered to God’s will for grandma.  In that moment, my mom and Aunt Monna watched grandma sit up, open her sky-blue eyes and take her last two breaths.  She laid back down and exhaled her last two breaths.  In that moment, it was finished.  Grandma was now separate from her earthly body, and her spirit was present with Jesus in that moment.  The grace of God and His new mercies each day allowed us to weather this storm in grandmas sacred transition and promotion to heaven.

                The heaviness of the atmospheric pressure lifted, the winds calmed, the waves subsided, and the dark storm clouds dissipated.  No matter how dark it seemed in that moment with grandma, God’s light overcame the darkness and brought victory.  Grandma was victorious, she fought the good fight and was as my sister in Christ, Alice shared, "A hero in her faith to her last breath."

                For that, I am so grateful and honored to witness the goodness of God.  For I now have wisdom that “there is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven:

"A time to be born and a time to die,

A time to plant and a time to uproot,

A time to kill and a time to heal,

A time to tear down and a time to build

A time to weep and a time to laugh,

A time to mourn and a time to dance,

A time to scatter stoves and a time to gather them,

A time to embrace and a time to refrain,

A time to search and a time to give up,

A time to keep and a time to throw away,

A time to tear and a time to mend,

A time to be silent and a time to speak,

A time to love and a time to hate,

A time for war and a time for peace,

What does the worker gain from his toil?  I have seen the burden God has laid on men.  He has made everything beautiful in its time.  He has also set eternity in the hearts of men, yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-11)

“I know that everything God does will endure forever, nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it.  God does it so that men will revere Him.”  (Ecclesiastes 3:13-14) “All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return” (Ecclesiastes 3:20)

He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end which means He is in control of all the details in between.  Revelations 22:13, Revelations 1:8, Revelations 21:6-7, 1:17-18, Isaiah 44:6, therefore we can be encouraged with trust and hope in Jesus who has made a way for us telling us, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Trust in God, trust also in me.  In my Father’s house are many rooms, if it were not so, I would have told you.  I am going to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.  You know the way to the place where I am going.” (John 14:1-4) Jesus….He is the way, and the truth and the life (John 14:6)   Amen