Around this earth of ours there are areas that will experience more extreme weather than other areas. Some of these areas have weather-related tragedies that other parts of the world seldom, if ever, experience. Along the U.S. eastern seacoast, for example, they have a series of hurricanes that we never see or feel in most western states. The plains states have tornadoes that we seldom, if ever, have in the state of Utah. In Asia and other parts of the world they have torrential rains and/or typhoons, while we usually experience very little rain as a designated desert state. Regardless of where we live in the world, however, all people will experience a certain amount of unwanted, unusual, maybe even catastrophic weather. A lack of extreme weather, a drought condition, for example may be just as catastrophic as a hurricane. Dry seasons cause crops to dry up, cattle to die and wildfires to burn relentlessly. When I was in the army in the early 1950’s, my M.P. Company was stationed in Arizona for a short while. While we were there, a desert sand storm came through the Army Proving Grounds near Tucson. A few of us were caught in the middle of it, and we were out in the open. We could see it coming for close to a mile because it was a huge sandy, reddish wall of desert sand, as high as we could see, rolling toward us extremely fast. I wasn’t sure what to expect or how much trouble we were in. I know we all tried to find some shelter, and there wasn’t a lot available. I remember laying down behind a pole and covering my nose and face with a handkerchief. The storm came fast and lasted probably 5, maybe 10, minutes, and it was gone. After the wind calmed down, we all stood up; we checked ourselves over and decided we were all okay. Everything in sight was covered with sandy, reddish desert sand, including us. We all had sand in our pockets, our underwear, our ears, nose and even our hair had turned sandy color. The next day, the local newspaper showed pictures of downtown Tucson and everything in town was sandy, and in some places there were piles of sand in the streets like miniature sand dunes. From what I understood, these sand storms were not uncommon in that area.
Maybe the most interesting thing about it was that the storm seemed to have treated everyone equally, regardless of rank, wealth and/or religious preference. Like all the storms of life, this one, as well, was nondiscriminatory.
I had just recently joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and I was still learning about God’s dealings and relationships with man. I probably, like most people, wondered why innocent little children or families and even the elderly were, sometimes, brutally victimized by these acts of nature. I don’t recall ever blaming God, but I do remember feeling empathy for them and questioned what forces targeted those parts of the population so that they had to suffer.
The more I learned of the scriptures, the more I came to realize that God will only step in or intercede in our lives when we, through our prayers of faith, essentially allow Him to temporarily suspend our agency. Our agency requires that we all make choices and, too, we must experience the consequences of those choices. Though it appears that choice had nothing to do with acts of nature, neither does the color of our skin, our age or anything else. We will all be tried equally by nature. Without the prayer of faith, we are all the same, placed here to experience earth and mortality and all of its trials and tribulations. If Heavenly influence were to step in and help anyone, or any one group of His children and they were treated preferentially, He would cease to be a ‘Just God’ and He would, therefore, cease to be God. “What, do ye suppose that mercy can rob justice? I say unto you, Nay; not one whit. If so, God would cease to be God.” (Alma 42:25)
The primary way that He can bless us as individuals and or groups is by our obedience to His universal instructions. He has provided guidelines that if followed we may avoid many of the pitfalls of life.
“My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, (Deuteronomy 32:2) “Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.” (Matthew 5:24–27) These instructions are equally available to all and where there may not be the law, and the commandments, there likewise is no punishment under that law. It is comforting to know that God is just and that under the sun we are all equally loved. “That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. (Matthew 5:43–45)
There is a story about a farmer who was looking to hire a farmhand. An applicant for the job was being interviewed, and after every question that the farmer asked him, his answer was always the same. “I can sleep when the wind blows.” Even though that seemed like a strange answer, the farmer decided to hire him. After several months on the job there came an unusually bad storm, with the wind blowing and lightning striking and the house was creaking. The farmer decided that he better get up and go check on his hired hand, to see if he had done his job. He went out to the bunkhouse and the hired hand was sleeping so soundly, that the farmer couldn’t even wake him up. So he went to check the barn and the cattle were all in and safely bedded down, then he checked the hay stacks and they were all covered with tarps and tied down to the ground. The shutters on the house were all closed. Everything was taken care of even better than the farmer himself would have done it. Then the farmer realized what the hired hand meant when he said, ‘I can sleep when the wind blows.’
Our church leaders are often encouraging us to be prepared for hard times, and that includes having a supply of food and emergency items, so we, too, can sleep when the wind blows. The weather is not prejudicial, but a prepared family will have an advantage, because they will have built their home on a rock foundation, and when the wind blows, it will not fall. If we are faithful, we will be able to weather most every storm. We, too, will be able to “sleep when the wind blows.”