Be anxious for nothing

People in the streets were talking about the dust that fell from the sky. I didn't see it. I will admit that the thought of volcanic ash falling upon our town was a bit intriguing. The volcanic explosion of a couple of weeks ago had not affected us but it had greatly affected the inhabitants of Chaiten and Futalefu only about 100 miles away from us. It has been said that if the winds had been directed to the west and not to the east that we would have been the ones evacuated from our homes. But this wasn't the plan of the Lord for us. The people here on our island sympathized with those affected by the explosion and at the same time were thankful that it didn't affect us physically. People were still a little worried when they heard of more action from the volcano and the possibility of the winds blowing our way. So when the dust started to come down, the people started to worry. We got a call the other night from one of our friends asking "have you seen the ash falling from the sky and covering the ground?" We answered "no" and I soon went outside to check out the situation. I couldn't see anything on the ground (it was night) but I could feel a thin layer on the hood of my truck. So we just went to bed figuring if there were to occur something more urgent that we would be informed of it. The next day (yesterday) came around and there was a town wide power and telephone outage and people again worried about the possible connection to the volcano. Our friends expressed again their concern and we encouraged them to not worry but to trust in the Lord.
As believers in Christ what other option do we have? The Scripture makes it very clear that God is faithful and can always be trusted. To not trust Him is to essentially call Him a liar and the Scripture also tells us that God cannot lie. The Apostle Paul reminds us to "be anxious for nothing but with all prayer and supplication let your requests be made known unto God". That's what we choose to do. Not just with the volcano situation but in all situations. We want to honor God by declaring to Him and to others that He can be trusted. He is our refuge, He is our shelter, He is our shield. Of course we are succeptible just like anyone else to the "natural disasters" that our world experiences: earthquakes, cyclones, tornadoes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, etc. But we also know that we dwell under the shadow of the Almighty (Psalm 91) and His eye is upon us on the sparrow (Matt 10:29-31); how much more will He take care of us? Beloved trust in God! Be anxious for nothing!