Sometimes God Calms the Storm

Sometimes God calms the storm. Other times, He lets the storm rage and calms His child.

Yesterday, it was the latter.

We arrived home from church around 2:30, a typical Sunday. Isaiah was at work at Walmart, and Eli was already in Utah headed for EFY, so it was just the three of us at home: Gerald, Seth, and I. We hung out for awhile, and then I decided to take a nap, my favorite Sunday activity. I lay down in my bed and was just at that point when you're almost asleep but not quite when the sky suddenly darkened. It seriously looked like dusk rather than mid-afternoon. Almost immediately, it began to rain. Hard. Then harder. Then the rain changed to hail. I've often heard the term "golf ball" to describe the size of large hailstones. Until yesterday, I had never seen such a thing. Indeed, the hail yesterday, at least some of it, was the size of golf balls.

About the time we opened our sliding glass door to gather up a couple of these huge stones (I wanted to put them in the freezer to show Eli when he gets back), the electrical storm began. Lightning lit up the sky; the crash of thunder bellowed immediately after. It was very close. At that point, we lost power. Seth, who had been putting on a brave front, came running into my arms. "Did the thunder scare you?" I asked. He replied in the affirmative. We hugged tight. I can't tell you for sure how long the storm lasted; it seemed relentless, one bolt of lightning after another, each followed closely by bellowing thunder.

It's always surprising to realize how much we rely on electricity. We surely take it for granted until we don't have it. Our land line phone was also down, so all we had with which to communicate with the outside world were our cell phones. Texting was sketchy--some messages got through; others didn't--, but thankfully, we could make and receive phone calls. We wanted to make sure Isaiah was okay at Walmart. He was. They locked down the entire store; neither customers nor employees were allowed to go outside. Isaiah actually saw the tornado before it ripped the roof off the Metra Park Arena and destroyed several businesses in the area. Fortunately, there was no event at the Metra yesterday, so the building was vacant as were most of the nearby businesses. It could have been so much worse had the Metra been occupied. Still, there is immense damage, and many will suffer emotionally and financially.

It ended as abruptly as it began. The sky turned blue, and everything was quiet. We went for a long walk breathing in the fresh, post-storm air.

Sometimes God calms the storm. Other times, He lets the storm rage, and calms His child. Yesterday, it was the latter.