Umbrella

love to see people on rainy days….they always seem to be willing to share an umbrella, even with a stranger. I was watching such an occurrence this morning and thought it was just wonderful. Then the Lord asked me when the last time was that I ran to be under His protective umbrella. He went even further to ask, “When was the last time you shared my umbrella with a stranger?”

Wow, Lord….what a way to start a Monday! All day I have been asking myself these two questions. When conflict (rain) arises in my life I am quick to fix things myself. Usually I have really messed up a situation before I cry out to the Lord and run for the protection of His great umbrella. When conflict arises in others lives, I love to give my advice, opinion, whatever we like to call it, and then I say, “Oh, let’s take that to the Lord….let’s fall under His protection before we try to figure this out.”

Why do we do this? When it is pouring down rain and someone offers you a spot under their umbrella, securing your dryness to the door, do you say, “No thanks? I prefer to be soaked when I get to work” No, we don’t! Well, most of us don’t. We jump at the opportunity to have a little security and protection from the downpour. Yet, when our Creator offers us His protection from the storm, often we turn our backs to Him. We try and try and try to figure it out and then when we are soaked to the bone and exhausted, we slowly drag ourselves to His umbrella in surrender. Wouldn’t it be easier to remain safe and dry from the storm and run to His protection FIRST?

My prayer for each of you, and myself is that we learn to run to and love the protective umbrella our Creator offers us. He is the calm in the storm, the ever present peace. He is the ultimate umbrella…..Grab a friends hand; grab the hand of a stranger and run to Him today, won’t you.