Beyond the Predictable

It’s almost mid-October and we finally have a bit of cooler weather here in Southern California. We actually had to pull out the extra blankets we had packed away and had to grab a jacket in the morning.

I welcome the change in temperature. The hot days were getting tiresome. It’s now the time to pull out the warmer clothes and bake coffee cakes and pumpkin bread. Of course, you can never fully pack up the summer clothes. It could be 90° for Thanksgiving or 85° for Christmas.

It would be nice to have some accurate predictions for our weather, but I guess that would be impossible. No one but God can know precisely what the weather will bring, although people can get close. I like the days when they forecast sunshine, but we get hail instead. I always keep an umbrella in my car, just in case.

Our economy right now is like Southern California weather: unpredictable. It’s a good thing I don’t take the forecasts too seriously. No matter what projections there are, whether good or bad, they won’t be accurate enough for me to totally trust them. I’d rather trust in God, who has promised to care for His people even in the droughts (tough times).

I love this passage from Jeremiah 16:7-8, “But blessed are those who trust in the LORD and have made the LORD their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they go right on producing delicious fruit.”