When the Wind Destroys a Windmill

Two Sundays ago, there was a surprise in our front yard.

Timmy had bought this beautiful windmill for a belated Mother's Day gift, he said,

and had assembled it Saturday evening.

I have wanted a windmill for years!

But while we were gone to church, the winds of the west decided to kick up their heels,

and when we returned home, the windmill was on its side,

 some of the blades and attachment parts bent.

How can I attempt to describe how I felt?

Out here on the windy prairie, everything has to be anchored because of the high winds,

and the occasional gusts that literally blow whole sheds over.

We've seen it with our own eyes-our neighbor's loafing shed catapaulted right over by a huge gust of wind.

It has happened more than once.
And now--our brand new windmill that Timmy had just bought at full price for his mother
was lying smashed on the ground.

Timmy took the windmill head off and stowed it in the garage for a couple days till he worked up the nerve to see if he could hammer the blades and their bent parts back out at all to where they should be.

Amazingly, he was able to repair it and get it working as good as new!

To be sure, when he set it up again in the place that he and I decided it should be,

he first anchored the four corners!

And when the day yesterday proved to be extra blustery, he took the windmill head off

just to be sure!

We really did not want the wind to destroy our windmill!

Sometimes the winds of life are mere breezes, softly blowing about us as we walk together through life, like the day Jonathan and I walked together on the ocean shore down in the Bahamas looking for pretty sea shells after a hot day of working on the church and apartment roofs.

But some days, the wind simply destroys.

One mighty gust is all it takes to leave us bent and broken, especially if we have forgotten to anchor our heart in Christ.

Lord, sometimes our hearts feel like the blown-over windmill.

We are overwhelmed with what has just happened, and are left flat on the ground.

Our blades are bent and ruined in the dust.

And we wonder if there is any way to find repair.

Maybe even right now our heart is stowed quietly in a garage somewhere, feeling hopeless

and helpless about our circumstances,

trying to work up the nerve to seek repair.

 

Will You, Lord, pick up the pieces just like Timmy picked up that windmill head one day,

and pound the bent parts back into place somehow?

If a young boy can repair a bent windmill blade,

You can do so much more!

Repair what is bent and broken, and make it like new again!

And then remind us that so often, if we take the time to anchor our hearts in You,

we wouldn't blow over so quickly in the first place.