The Dove “quiet the storm”

The one moment. The moment the news is deafening. Too much to process. The moment everything around you stills. All the noise quiets. The reality can’t possibly be true reality. No matter what that moment has been for you, it is real grief. We can all pinpoint that at some point in life.

The moment I first sat foot on our property for the first time, after the devastation, the noise around me quieted. The reality didn’t feel real, because in truth, it didn’t even feel like our farm. There were no markers left to show where I was standing on our property. The storm was real. The destruction, real. The loss of property and livestock, all real. But there was also something else very real. 

Peace.

December 11, 2021

In the deafening, “too much to process” moment, there was still a peace. We spent all day picking through rubble & securing a field for the livestock that remained. I can’t even tell you how many people came by-ones you know will be there, ones you’re surprised aren’t there, ones who just can’t be there because they’re not ready yet and ones that we’ll never see again but were Jesus to us that day. I’ve never experienced anything as overwhelming and humbling as that day.

There was a gigantic evergreen tree that stood tall and proud in our side yard. I loved it. I had cut most of our Christmas decorations from it that year, in my attempt to have a true farmhouse Christmas. I used to joke and say, “I hope the wind never blows this thing on our house.” Well, it did fall, but not on the house that day. After being at the homesite most of the day, I found peace in the middle of this gigantic, butchered evergreen tree. In the middle of mangled branches, sat a single dove. 

All Day.

The Dove.

The DOVE is a representation and symbol of peace, love, devotion, navigation, messages, grace, gentleness, purity, The Holy Spirit, and Hope!

I had peace, my husband had peace. That dove reminded me of peace and the giver of it. The evidence of the storm was all around the dove. Peace is not the absence of any storm. There will always be a storm, there will always be a valley. Peace is the quiet in the midst of the storm. When you should be falling apart, but He is holding you together. When you can’t pick yourself up off the floor, but He does it for you. When you can’t take one more treatment, but He quiets the storm within. When your marriage is no longer your safe place, He holds you tight. 

The dove reminded me of my promise that day. 

John 16:33  I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

A promise for ALL believers.

This is not our home, He has overcome this world.

We will have trouble here-this was a day of trouble for my family, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. But the dove reminded us that in HIM we have peace in any storm. You have peace in any storm, my friend, all you need is to ask for it. 

We had no idea, but in that moment, the Lord was providing wagons of provision that would loudly say, “I am making beauty from ashes, be still and watch me move!”

We see you, Jesus.

I pray you feel His peace today, my friend.