"Lightning Strikes and Panic Attacks"; Genesis 8:1

One spring day, I was on a hike in the beautiful Colorado mountains with some friends.  As often happens in the spring there, a rainstorm suddenly started booming thunder and cracks of lightning that seemed to be striking really, really close by.   Honestly, it was scary.  One of the teenagers in our group was very obviously upset– standing by himself in the middle of what I realized was a panic attack.  I quickly went over to this teen, wrapped my arms around him and bore my testimony to him, “God knows exactly where you are.  He knows where each lightning bolt is striking.  He can keep you safe.”  After we did some deep breathing together he calmed down and we made it safely back down the mountain.  I imagine Noah might have felt like my teenage friend: afraid and alone.  But in Genesis 8:1 it says, “And God remembered Noah, and every living thing . . . “ Noah was in the middle of a storm– the likes of which the world had never seen before and would never see again.  But even in the midst of it, God remembered him.  Like Noah, we can remember that no matter how small or insignificant we may feel in the face of all the big things happening in the world, we are never– not for one second– forgotten by God.   Music courtesy of bensound.com