Quiet Time files - 011309

If you are following along on the chronological reading, you will have spent the last ten days or so in the book of Job. Frankly, it is far from my favorite book. I cringe every time I read the "comfort" Job's friends offer him, and when Job completely misses the idea that there may be reasons for his suffering beyond his own limited understanding.

Still, I had to chuckle when this verse lept off the page at me:

By the breath of God, ice is given, and the broad waters are frozen fast.

Job 37:10

For the last week the weather forecasters have been warning us of the current deep freeze. The news tonight featured gorgeous pictures of the newly formed ice floes on Lake Michigan, bobbing up and down on the swell.

The closing list includes almost six hundred area schools, business and churches. The city is basically hunkering down until the cold passes, with non-essential functions temporarily shutting down. For all the fancy weather equipment, the advanced doppler thingamajiggies and whatnots, they couldn't stop the cold from coming.

The next reading in Job begins God's response, one of the most beautiful sections of all of scripture, I think. He begins by questioning whether Job can understand all the mysteries of creation.

From whose womb did the ice come forth, and who has given birth to the frost of heaven? The waters become hard like stone, and the face of the deep is frozen.
Job 38:29-30

We like to think we are in control of this planet. We've explored most of the surface, are plumbing the depths of the sea, have analyzed weather patterns and had an impact on the climate by our presence.

But every so often, we get a reminder of Who is really in control.