Umbrella

It never fails when I’m sitting in my office and getting ready to leave for lunch or for the end of the day that the bottom falls out and it starts raining a monsoon outside.  I frantically search my area for my umbrella, and as always, it dawns on me that I’ve left it in my car.  How many times has that happened to you, too?

Have you ever been curious and wondered just who invented the umbrella?  I mean seriously!  Why couldn’t I have come up with that million dollar idea?  I could have totally been retired and living the good life right now.  But have you ever curiously wondered where the notion came from? 

To be honest, I hadn’t either until I just started typing up this blog.  I always thought the umbrella was a neat contraption with a weird name.  According to some basic research (thanks, Wikipedia), there are traces of some type of umbrella being used way back in 21 AD, when a similar contraption was first installed on a carriage.  In reading the basic history and overview of the umbrella, I often love the varying ways that an umbrella is often referred to as including: folding canopy, gamps, brolly, bumbershoot and more commonly parasol (which sounds so much more appealing than umbrella, in my opinion).

Nonetheless, aside from its origins and uses throughout history and aside from what you want to refer to it as, aren’t we all grateful for its concept?   An umbrella provides us a small shelter in the time of a rainstorm.  It provides a little protection to at least attempt to keep our heads and upper body mostly dry (unless of course, a gust of wind comes along and flips your umbrella inside out). Umbrellas, however, are not useful for flying as Mary Poppins so often led us to believe.  (Trust me on this, I tried it as a child, jumping off our deck with umbrella in hand.  I flew through the air straight down and collided with the ground, but hey! I tried it, right!?)

While umbrellas can provide us a little protection during a storm, they won’t always last – they can rust, they can break, they can flip inside out.  There’s ultimately only one true shelter in the time of a storm (whether a physical thunderstorm or a personal battle storm that we face ourselves), God is the only shelter that can sustain us and last forever.  He never fails, He never breaks, and He never flips inside out (though, I’m sure sometimes some of us probably drive Him close to doing so), and I bet even He can fly! 

So, next time you utilize your umbrella, instead of humming along to Rihanna’s hit song Umbrella (ella, ella, eh, eh!), take a few moments out of your day to be thankful for your temporary protection during the rainstorm of what you are holding in your hand, but also take time to be thankful for your eternal protection in the One who will never fail you during any type of storm that you may face along life’s journey!