“I would hurry to my place of shelter,
far from the tempest and storm."
Psalm 55:8
The storms in our area began before the ten o’clock nightly news. In fact the weather forecast was delayed due to lightening knocking out the meteorologist’s computer. She scrambled to reboot and bring up her graphics while the anchor filled time and went to commercial.
Our weather warning radio went off every time they had an advisory, severe thunderstorm watch, severe thunderstorm warning. We went to bed with the lightening flashing and the thunder crashing.
Sometime before 12:00 am the screeching of the radio warned of flash flooding, we listened then rolled over and fell back to sleep. Around 1:00 am the radio woke us up again with tornado warnings, followed by the sirens in town giving more urgency to the weather warning.
We got up and went to the windows, waiting for the flashes of lightening to light up the darkness, as if we could determine for ourselves how serious the conditions were. Rain was coming down in sheets. For the first time in the 2 ½ years we have lived here we heard a new noise, our sump pump kicking on. The Weather Channel showed the line of storms was part of a stationary front, streaming right across our area. Lights flickered and the cable went off. We had already put on our shoes, grabbed cell phones and now made our way to the basement. Once we were down there the electricity went out. The lights came back on and we waited it out until the sirens in town stopped then headed back upstairs. The tornado warning had lifted but the severe storm warning was in affect for several more hours.
Crawling back into my bed I thought of a song my children used to sing:
“Rise and Shine”
there's gonna be a floody floody
Lord said to Noah
there's gonna be a floody floody
Get my children
out of the muddy muddy
Children of the Lord.
I also thought of the many verses in the Bible that speak of storms, how God gets our attention through the power of storms; he also protects us in the storms. In Mark 4 Jesus calmed the storm.
Sometimes my storms are because of people or events that I have no control over, other times they are a result of my own bad choices. God doesn’t leave me alone even if they are of my own making; He walks me through them.
Through family squabbles, health problems, marriage difficulties, crying toddlers, troubled teenagers, doubts and fears, unemployment, an empty nest, through it all God is my refuge in the storm. Every time I have cried to Him out of the midst of my trouble to please calm the storm, He has answered…usually by calming me not the storm.
No matter what kind of storm it is, a literal storm raging outside or my own personal storm of troubles that no one knows about, God is right in the center of it. He has promised to never leave me no matter what I am facing. There are more storms in our forecast over the next several days…more storms in my future I’m sure. Come what may I’m safe with Him.
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