Crosswords from the Storm

Crosswords from the Storm

By Kateb Nuri-Alim Shunnar

ACROSS

1. What you hold onto when everything else slips away.

Answer: Faith

It ain’t always loud. Sometimes it’s a whisper in the wind, sometimes it’s the rocking chair creaking on your grandmother’s porch when she says, “He didn’t bring you this far to leave you now.” Faith is when your back is against the wall, and you still expect a door to open.

2. The morning that follows the midnight cry.

Answer: Dawn

Dawn ain’t just sunlight it’s a promise. A holy hush that says even darkness has to clock out. You been through the tears, through the tossing and turning, and here comes dawn, holding a warm towel and saying, “I seen it all. You made it.”

3. What grows after the rain.

Answer: Strength

Not the kind you lift in the gym, but the kind that comes from lifting burdens you never asked for. It’s the way a tree learns to bend without breaking. The way a mother still cooks dinner with tears on her cheeks. Strength is survival soaked in grace.

4. What speaks to the Creator when you can’t find the words.

Answer: Prayer

Sometimes prayer ain’t in words it’s in sighs, sobs, or just sitting in stillness. It’s an ache handed upward. A moan from the belly. My grandmother used to say, “If you can hum, you can pray.”

5. The heart’s flashlight in the dark.

Answer: Hope

Hope is stubborn. It’ll show up at a funeral, at an empty table, at the hospital bed. It don’t need an invitation. It’s the sound of a child laughing when the bills are unpaid. The sun cracking through the clouds on a broken day.

6. The soil of spiritual growth.

Answer: Struggle

You don’t grow on the mountaintop you grow in the valley. The valley where knees get dirty and prayers get loud. Where you dig deep, deeper than you ever thought you could. Struggle tills the heart so joy can take root.

7. The Creator’s breath in your lungs.

Answer: Grace

It don’t make sense, but it shows up anyway. When you mess up, when you fall, when you quit. Grace says, “I still got you.” Grace ain’t fair it’s divine.

8. What can’t be shaken, not even by the storm.

Answer: Soul

The world can take your house, your money, your health but your soul is sacred territory. It’s been sealed by the Creator’s kiss. Fire-tested, storm-weathered, and still standing.

9. The invisible thread pulling you forward.

Answer: Purpose

Even when you can’t see it, it’s tugging at you. Purpose don’t leave you alone. It nudges you at night, it whispers when you try to give up. It’s why you’re still here.

10. The legacy your grandmother left in her apron pocket.

Answer: Wisdom

She may not have finished school, but she carried degrees in discernment. “Baby, don’t answer every knock at your door,” she’d say. Wisdom is seasoning in the skillet, oil on the scalp, and stories that stretch three generations long.

DOWN

2. The act of letting go so something greater can hold you.

Answer: Surrender

Surrender ain’t giving up it’s giving over. It’s handing your heart to the Creator and saying, “Here, you drive.” It's stepping out the way so the miracle can walk through.

3. The promise that keeps you grounded when the winds pick up.

Answer: Covenant

The Creator made one with you before you ever made one with this world. It’s stronger than doubt, thicker than despair. It don’t expire in hard times.

4. Your shield when the enemy comes knocking.

Answer: Truth

Truth don’t flinch. It don’t need defending. When lies stack up like storm clouds, truth stands like a southern oak rooted, mighty, and unmoved.

5. What the fire can’t consume.

Answer: Anointing

Anointing is oil the storm can’t wash off. It’s what sets you apart when you feel ordinary. It’s why people lean on you and don’t know why. It’s heaven’s fingerprint on your forehead.

6. What storms don’t destroy they reveal.

Answer: Character

When the wind hits, you find out what you’re made of. You learn who’s real, what’s real, and what can stay behind. The storm don’t lie it shines light on the bones of your being.

7. The gift hidden in hard times.

Answer: Testimony

Pain births a story. And that story ain’t just for you it’s for the next weary soul who needs to know they’re not alone. Every trial is just a testimony in disguise.

8. What connects your suffering to your destiny.

Answer: Process

The Creator ain’t cruel just thorough. Every detour, delay, and disappointment is part of the recipe. It’s in the simmer, not the microwave. The process is where the flavor comes from.

9. What makes you walk different after the wrestle.

Answer: Breakthrough

Jacob wrestled till daybreak and limped away with a new name. Breakthrough don’t come without a battle. But once it comes, you ain’t the same.

10. The melody of your deliverance.

Answer: Joy

Joy don’t always wear a smile, but it always dances. It’s the sound of freedom cracking chains. It’s the laughter that escapes after the pain has passed.

11. The presence that never leaves, even when others do.

Answer: Spirit

When the room empties, the Spirit remains. Like that last candle burning after the power’s gone out. Warm. Quiet. Present.

Final  Parable to Tie It All Together:

There once was an old mule who fell in a dry well. The farmer thought it was over. Instead of trying to pull him out, he began shoveling dirt to bury him. But that mule stomped every scoop down and stepped up. Shovel after shovel, he climbed higher until he walked right out. The very dirt meant to bury him became his elevation.

Proverbs

You can’t stop a bird from flying over your head, but you can keep it from building a nest.

Trouble don’t last always, but the lessons sure do.

Ain’t nothing wrong with falling, long as you don’t stay there.