Yo Yos and Life's Weather
Are you proficient with playing with a yo-yo? Able to control it into doing “tricks?” I never was. Nor could I control the yo-yo-like weather we encounter most days here in the Northwoods. Thankfully, God controls not only the daily weather but everything else that happens. His power and love are always reliable.
Eternal Perspectives by Sally Bair
Yo-yo weather
One moment the sun is shining, the next moment it’s raining. Or snowing. I call it yo-yo weather and sometimes I wonder who is pulling the string.
Yo-yos were popular during my teen years, and readily available since they were manufactured at the Luck, Wis., Duncan yo-yo factory near my home. I remember the time our school hosted an expert yo-yo handler. He performed dozens of tricks, including rock-the-baby, walk-the-dog, hop-the-fence, sidewinder, the pinwheel, the sleep, and flips.
The yo-yo has been around since the 1800s in some form or another, even used as a weapon over 400 years ago. In the 1920s, Pedro Flores, a Philippine immigrant, manufactured it as a toy. Since then, Duncan redesigned and marketed it. The word yo-yo means “come back,” in the native language of the Philippines.
Local sales of yo-yos must have quadrupled the day they were featured at my school, as students rushed to buy them. I was one of them, but after trying for hours, and days and weeks, I failed abysmally at making my new toy do anything but go up and down. Either the string got tangled, my clumsy fingers caused the yo-yo to falter, or I couldn’t find a dependable rhythm. Working with a yo-yo required lots of practice and some expertise.
When I see and hear about the abrupt changes happening around me, I picture a yo-yo bouncing up and down, aborting in one way or another. I visualize God, however, as the expert who controls every movement. The Bible says He is loving and kind, like a parent “rocking the baby.” “Praise the Lord, … all you peoples! For His merciful kindness is great toward us, and the truth of the Lord endures forever.” (Psalm 117:1-2)
And unlike the yo-yo that can be “put to sleep,” God never sleeps. “Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.” (Psalm 121:4)
The yo-yo weather we encounter is as untrustworthy as the toy that I could not control. The Lord, however, is trustworthy at all times. “In You, O Lord, I put my trust; let me never be put to shame.” (Psalm 71:1) He alone is reliable. His Word is what we can depend on for our needs, for He is also faithful. Hebrews 10:23 reads: “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.”
God’s Word is filled with many more attributes on which we can depend.
Lord, thank You for Your promises. Cause us to embrace Your love and kindness, Your eternal expertise, your faithfulness, and trustworthiness always—during our dark times and the days we feel like an uncontrollable yo-yo. In Jesus’ name, amen.