Wednesday, April 04, 2007

The Storm


I'm not afraid to admit I'm afraid of storms, always have been, can't imagine it changing now. Last night though, was an awesome storm. Now that it's over, I can admit, it scared the pee out of me and from what I hear from others, them too.

Set up: I took my son to karate at the church (yeah, it is weird) and decided I would just wait on him. I had a book to read, I'm happy. The storm started while we were there, I could hear hail bouncing off the roof, on checking it was pea to marble sized. But I was safe, it was good. After the lesson we were running out to the truck when I realized I was going to have to run through the rain (I had on crocs, bad choice) with the lightening so frequent you couldn't out run it. I ran..

So now we're driving down the road, all good, when it really began to hail. Now, I can't reproduce the sound, but it was BAM, BAM, BAM BAAM.... lightening POW POW POW, I'm sure somewhere in there I might have been screaming... but then I'm not sure. The amazing part was where, again, I'm driving like 45 mph down the road and the lights in the businesses and the street lights start going out in progression as we are driving. NOT MAKING THIS UP!! It was bizarre. I would have pulled over but frankly there wasn't anywhere that seemed safe and I was almost home.

Today I found out that we passed a substation that had a fire. But stranger, my husband works for an electric utility, people that were in for a meeting were staying at a hotel close and saw lightening hit a pole in a fireball, travel down the line to a gas station, come back towards them and headed in the direction of the substation. Even talking about it now brings back the stark raving fear I felt.

Today, in remembering all this, I also thought of the scripture where Elijah was in the cave and God passed by. Several things happened, but one was a storm. It was only in the quiet, still voice that Elijah heard God. My thought was even if God was talking if it was a storm like that I don't think Elijah could have heard him over the hail. Now now, God doesn't mind if we project our little thoughts like this. With it all over I can say, I was impressed. Think of all we do to make electric light shows and fireworks, what God does with a little warm / cold front is really impressive.

I teased the boys that stayed here this weekend that they would have to sleep with the dogs, we did last night, they were as scared as I was. The smaller border collie slept between us and didn't move all night except to cuddle closer. Very similar to when the kids used to crawl in bed with us.......

1 comment:

Midlife Midwife said...

I personally like wild storms. It makes me think of the majesty of God. I love the story about Elijah. I often tell myself to calm the storms in my head in order to hear the still small voice of God.

My favorite story of a storm was when my daughter was small and we got caught in a tremendous storm. We sought shelter in a church building. My daughter clung to my leg and then looked back at the statue of Christ in the foyer. She commented "Mommy we are safe here because Jesus is here." I often think of that story. God won't always calm the storms in our life. The storms rage all around us in this world. I just pray that he will grant me a little circle of safety and peace in the midst of storm because "Jesus is here."