How to live carefree in a crazy world

It’s January in North Idaho and usually that means a ton of moisture either snow, frozen rain, or rain followed by wind and wind gusts. When your home is surrounded by the tallest of trees, that can be unnerving. Wind has always been unsettling to me. It’s the one type of weather that I’m not a fan of. It cuts right to your bones. Since I’ve already experienced one of those tall trees falling on part of my home a few Januarys ago, I’m more in tune to the weather reports when it is predicting wind than most. I may or may not be guilty of packing my bags when wind gusts are predicted in January and crashing at one of my kids’ homes overnight until it all “blows over” (pun intended). The other night, during a mild windstorm as I sat in our hot tub, I noticed a large hawk soaring up above in the crystal-clear night sky. He looked relaxed and appeared to be enjoying gliding around high above the action. I had to giggle as I sat there dreading higher gusts as he looked so peaceful. He appeared as if it was his favorite type of weather. He looked like he enjoyed the wind like a surfer enjoys the waves during a storm. While the rest of us are staying out of the water, because there are signs everywhere with red flag warnings, instead they run to the water to catch the big waves. The image of the hawk stayed with me and it was no mistake that I saw him that night. Along with the turbulent weather, we can experience some turbulence in our lives because we are, you know, humans. There is no escaping it. Then as I was reading in Luke Chapter 12 I read about how Jesus wants us to live, in the midst of the turbulence. Luke 12:24 says, “Take the carefree birds as your example. Do you ever see them worry? They don’t grow their own food or put it in a storehouse for later. Yet God takes care of every one of them, feeding each of them from his love and goodness. Isn’t your life more precious to God than a bird? Be carefree in the care of God!” Personally, I believe that my seeing the carefree hawk and then reading this passage just a few days later were no coincidence. I got the message, loud and clear. We weren’t created to stress out and constantly worry, whether it’s about the inclement weather or where our next meal is coming from. We are created to “fly” high and proud, carefree and full of faith.