No matter where you live, there are situations that you learn to accept and live through. In Montana, we accepted living in really cold and long winters where sometimes you deal with pipes freezing or maybe getting snowed in. When we moved to California, we learned that living with earthquakes were just a way of life, many times we would have the attitude of ‘here’s another one’, and continue with our daily events. When we moved to the Carolina’s, we were introduced to hurricanes and tornadoes. Although tornadoes don’t happen as often as Oklahoma or Tennessee, we learned quickly that we needed to take these things seriously.
One day I noticed the wind was howling, there where huge ‘white caps’ on the lake, and things were getting tossed around in our back yard. While I was outside tucking the BBQ and trash cans up against the house, trying to stand up in the wind that was coming from every direction, I miss several calls and texts from our daughter and son-in-law. There had been a tornado spotted in the small town we lived in, and they wanted to make sure I was okay, and if I was, they needed me to pick their boys up from school. The school was closing early to get the kids to a safer place, as half of the school’s classrooms were in portable buildings. I jumped in my SUV, and got to the school thirty minutes early, only to find the school releasing the kids even earlier than anticipated. The boys jumped in the car, and we headed home as fast as we could in the heavy rain. The closer we got to our home, the harder the wind was blowing. The rain was coming down in sheets from every side. I hoped that once we got into a wooded area that we would be sheltered from the rain, but to no avail. Once we were about a half mile from the house, we were just crawling down the road. We could not see a foot in front of our car. I asked my grandson sitting in the front seat to turn on the hazard lights, and help find the yellow lines on the road as we crawled through the wrath of the storm. Both the boys shared their concern that we needed to cross the lake on a narrow bridge before we could turn into our neighborhood, and we were all talked about the fact our car might be headed off the bridge before we could see what was happening. At this point our biggest fear was getting smashed by one of the trees (that earlier I thought would provide shelter) were swaying violently in the storm. We needed to keep moving as we were being pelted by hail, small limbs, wind, and rain. As we rounded the corner and headed into our driveway, there was trash, limbs, and debris everywhere. We all jumped out of the car, began moving things out of the driveway so we could pull the vehicle into the garage. Once we were safely in the house, the oldest grandson said that was one of the most stressful things he had seen. After the storm subsided, we picked up the trash, gathered most of the fallen branches, and felt very lucky. Most of the other homes by us had missing siding, torn screens and broken banisters on their porches, even dented cars from flying debris, but we only had some damaged trees.
Our younger grandson sat down that afternoon and drew this picture of his interpretation of our adventure that day. He asked me sweetly and innocently if I would tell you this story and use his drawing. How could I say anything but Absolutely! We laughed at his perspective… he knew that even though I was driving, I was not in control… so he drew me in the back seat of the SUV.
That day we learned the difference between a tornado watch and a warning… the difference between taking precautions and taking actions. A watch is when the conditions are right for a tornado, where a tornado warning means a tornado has been spotted, and you need to get to the center of the house…. And not drive though a wooded area. So many times in life we find in the middle of a storm, we can’t control the things going on around us. The waves crash around us and we try and keep our head above water as we are tossed by what is happening around us. It’s these times we need to turn everything over to God, and He will calm the seas that surround us. We can’t stop the storm, but we know who can.
“LORD God of Hosts,
who is strong like You, LORD?
Your faithfulness surrounds You.
You rule the raging sea;
when its waves surge, You still them.” Psalm 89:8-9
