The Gale

It was the call of his mother that roused him from sleep

His mother rarely calls

He would usually just wake up to her voice notes

His mother said, “I saw a man holding a multicolored umbrella, walking under the sun. Then a wind came, a ferocious wind and it started dragging the umbrella with the man

The man should have closed up the umbrella and allowed the wind to have its day so as to preserve the umbrella from destruction but the umbrella had been sold to the man as a wind-resistant umbrella

The man wanted to test how true this was

It turned out to a false advert

By the time the umbrella started getting loose at the hinges, the man recognized his mistake and tried to close it but the umbrella refused to close

The button that ought to close the umbrella in and prevent it from further damage had gone bad

It was a full scale war between the man, the wind, and the umbrella

The wind won

The umbrella was badly damaged

The man was hurt that he lost his umbrella and he was determined to repair it or return it to the salespeople to get another one”

His mother said this was the vision she saw and this was

Why she called

She wanted to know what was going on in his life that the Lord will show her such a vision regarding him

He started laughing

God has a huge sense of humor

The last person he wanted to tell all that had transpired in his life in the last year in detail was his mother

He didn’t want her thinking, he was incapable of sorting out his own affairs

She naturally wouldn’t meddle but he was sure that as a mother, she prayed for him constantly even more than she prayed for her other children

But life had happened and even though he fought hard

Something precious was taken from him by the wind

He could have prevented the error, he tried everything he could to control the damage

He fought hard, begged, and cried hard but it is what it is

He was still nursing the heartbreak when his mother called

The event was still too fresh, the sore too recent

He told his mother everything

As much of the facts, the whole truth as he could remember

The joy, the comfort, the changes and then the moment the wind came disguised as a fresh breeze and the consequence of the wind when it had fully blown out of

Proportion

His mother said, “Did she fight as hard as you did? Did she stand beside you to fight for this or did she leave all the fighting for you to do?

Was she expecting the crown to come without any form of resistance or was she prepared to slug it out in order to reign?

Was she prepared to reign or did she just want to wear the crown like a fancy trophy?

Did she understand what it took Solomon to reign even though he was given the crown on a platter of gold? Did she understand what it took David to reign even though he was handed the crown by an Amalekite soldier

Did she understand Elijah called forth the rain and then prayed until it came?

Did she realize Jesus called forth the cross and then prayed until it was fulfilled?

If she didn’t see it as worth fighting for, she really didn’t want it

You and her should have worked together to prevail over that wind”

He couldn’t answer his mother’s questions

It would mean accepting that many of the things his mother said were right as usual

His mother shouldn’t always be so right, though!

They talked for almost two hours

Mother and son

They laughed

And shared stories of all the wonders of God and how the light has transformed their stories

His mother asked him how he was coping

He told his mother he was doing a bad job of it

His mother told him it will get better

“Pilgrims are weary of the journey sometimes, she said, but they still press on, a step at a time until they reach their goal”

He understood her perfectly

Understanding her didn’t take away the emotional pain he was still nursing as a result of how things panned out between him and the story he shared with his mother

To walk into the future oblivious of what it holds give temporary comfort and hope to some

They just take each day as it comes but for those with the benefit of foresight, knowledge changes the decisions they make and the attending consequences

PS: Solomon had foresight but the wind of tradition

Wouldn’t let him have the one thing his heart desired

That the Queen of Sheba become his official queen and that her son become his heir and future King of Israel

The Queen of Sheba loved Solomon with all her heart, she desired that her reign with him will be accepted by the people but she was a proud woman, a Queen

She wouldn’t play the politics of the court so that she might gain influence and be accepted by the Elders of Israel

She expected Solomon in His wisdom to call his advisers and elders of the tribes of Israel to order and hand her the Crown

As I read the account of their love in the Song of Songs and consider the historical events I have studied about the two of them, I came to a brutal conclusion

Love may be enough to keep a spouse

But love is not enough to keep a crown

A queen must be willing to do the work

A king must be willing to do the work

Solomon had to work hard to consolidate his throne and establish his reign even though David gave him the crown

He had to win the people over and build his level of influence

Influence is earned, not given

-GSW-