Storms

Last Saturday evening, I was clueless of the danger of the storm brewing around me.
I was sitting in my living room balancing my checkbook when the tornado warning siren began to howl. It took me a few minutes to recognize what it was, and when I did, I jumped off the couch, grabbed my dog, and ran outside into the pouring rain. I looked all around me at the sky, taking in the sight of dark, towering clouds on every side. I live in a mobile home, so I knew I must find shelter…quickly. The safest place I knew of would be the ditch on the opposite side of the trailer park, so I made my way to it, keeping an eye on the sky for suspicious activity. About halfway between my home and the ditch, I looked off to my right and saw this:



Well, what I saw was from a slightly different angle and a quite a bit further away (I did not have my camera on me, but was able to find a photo from someone silly enough to be snapping pictures at that time).

What a weird-looking cloud. What is it? Is that the tornado? [the news later confirmed this to be, in fact, a twister]

An elderly lady in a bright yellow poncho, clinging to a little crate, stood in the middle of the road with a wild, scared look on her face. I asked her where she was going and told her I was getting under the bridge in the ditch because I felt it was the safest and quickest place to get. She followed me down the bank, into the garbage-covered ditchbed already filling with churning, muddy water, and scooted behind me under the bridge, where the ground was still dry dirt. A man came a little later and assured us we were in the safest place possible, but to beware of flood waters. He left to check the weather. No sooner than he did, the waters started to rise--rapidly. By the time he came back, the water had risen nearly to my waist. He said that storm had passed, but another was on its way right for us and we needed to find a more stable place to go if possible.

I am still amazed at how it worked out. I had needed to call a lady from church last week, and though I had forgotten to program the number into my phone, it was still in my dialed calls list. I remembered Mrs. Karen telling me once she did not live far from me and offering her home in case of a storm. So, taking a deep breath, I called her back to take her up on that.

Here's a photo of the storm clouds from the road I live on:



And another photo from my town showing storm clouds that look as if they are growing angrier by the seoond:



Scary, huh?

The second tornado siren errupted before I made it to my car after cleaning Stella and me up a little (we were black from our visit with the ditch). I was strangely calmer than usual up until this point. I think the situation was finally starting to really sink in.

I am so grateful for Mrs. Karen and her family. They were calm, sweet, and constantly in remembrance of our great Protector. Their dependence on our Heavenly Father was evident in their behavior and their spirit. I could think of nowhere better to be in the midst of a storm than with the smiling faces of those precious people. I felt safe, even in their front yard, even though the storm around us looked something like this:



Mrs. Karen and her family are special people, but what made them even more special was the Spirit of the Lord in their hearts.

The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

This was a real life situation that proved to be a lesson for me, I feel, and possibly something we can all glean from if we step back and evaluate our own reaction to the stormclouds in our lives. Is our trust in the Lord? When the storms come, do we take courage in our God, or do we fall back in fear? God is still working in me. I am far from where I should be in my faith--for fear DID come upon me when I saw those clouds. I desire to trust in the Lord as my dear friends do, never doubting His unchanging, gentle, sweet, loving, protecting hands.