Billows of Love and Healing
“Billows” isn’t a word that I use in my everyday speech. But because on this day I take to the pavement for a morning walk, I can’t help but notice the billowy clouds. I take photos in the direction of the Texas Children’s Hospital, but I need to get to a spot that isn’t skewed with electrical wires and fences. I meander my way around to the hospital for better close ups of those clouds.
Hmm! No gate guard? How wonderful! I think maybe the hospital grounds are officially open for folks like me whose curiosity has gotten the best of them. Lo and behold — I am able to take photos of the entire outdoor landscaping, the building entrances, the Texas Children’s Hospital sign and so much more.
I feel inspired to know that so much good is soon to come out of this place of healing and wholeness! And it will be a most beautiful opportunity for a nice walk!
Back to my fixation on the billowy clouds that first inspired me on my walk. An old song that I heard my mama sing so many times comes to my mind. “Peace, peace, wonderful peace, coming down from the Father above. Sweep over my spirit forever I pray, in fathomless BILLOWS of love.” Of course, I have a “God” moment!
Did you know that billows means a large mass of something, typically cloud, smoke, or steam. Aha! Billows of love and peace sweeping over my soul right in the middle of the storms I might be facing – love and peace that comes from the sun (the Son)!
It is such a sweet thought I have about my precious mother who – these many years later, I remember how she lived in God’s peace in the middle of tremendous chaos. My mom knew chaos. Her husband (my dad) was diagnosed with a brain tumor when I was eight years old. After the surgery to remove the tumor, my dad was never the same. He had many seizures that I witnessed as a young child that created chaos and fear in my young mind.
There was no back-up plan when my dad was so sick he could no longer work. Mom had to work long hours to supply for us. Dad passed on when I was fifteen. I watched Mom, throughout those years, to be in peace. I never saw her anguishing about her “lot in life”.
I remember that she had to sell her wedding ring at a pawn shop to get enough money to help make ends meet. Maybe, I saw tears on that day, but she would rise up and sing “Peace, peace, wonderful peace, coming down from the Father above. Sweep over my spirit forever I pray, in fathomless billows of love.”
Those billows of love and peace swept over me many times in my own times of chaos. Chaos means “complete disorder and confusion”. I clung to the same peace during those times like my mama did.
Maybe, today, you are in a world of chaos. May we choose those billowy clouds of peace to settle our spirits. Jesus did it when He spoke to the winds and waves, “Peace be still”. He’s given us the authority to speak to the winds and waves in our lives. May we all sing that dear old song about the peace of our Father – the fathomless billows of love.
Psalm 29:11 “The LORD will give strength to His people; the LORD will bless His people with peace.”