| Have you heard the saying, "And the thunder rolls?" The most memorable use of that saying was in Garth Brooks country song, "And the Thunder Rolls." Well, I never really understood that term. To me thunder was a loud pop or bang following a flash of lightning. That was until I moved to Texas. My first lightning storm down here blew my mind. The thunder simply rolled. There weren't pauses or starts and stops, it simply continued to roll through while lightning formed a light show all around. It is the most amazing thing I have ever seen! |
Currently when lightening is passing through it is often accompanied by another part of creation that many would like to not have. That is the instability of the atmosphere. When that atmosphere becomes unstable a tornado can literally drop out of the sky at any given second causing both beauty in it's appearance, while leaving such damage in it's wake. New technology in the past few years has made it a bit easier for them to predict the possibility of tornado's but even at that, they only can say that the atmosphere is primed and ready for action. The storm in Moore, OK this week gave a whopping 16 minutes warning. Here in Tornado alley we have what are known as "storm watchers." When the possibility is there, these storm watchers will go out and keep an eye out for tornado's. When one touches down they will have that area turn on their sirens alerting the people in that community to get under ground, or in the most fortified area you can without windows.
With an E4 or E5 it is critical to have a basement to go to, but in Texas the ground is like clay, and is near impossible to build basements or underground shelters. So we must get as low to the ground and pray it doesn't come over us.
2 weeks ago, I saw the change in the sky occurring. Clouds rolled in, thunder started to roll, the lightening show began, and the air began to change in an unexplainable way. At the time, I was naive and more curious. I was out on my balcony taking pictures. At one point I was on the phone and said to my friend, "there is an alarm going off, guess I am supposed to go get in the bathtub or something." That night 3 or 4 alarms went off and I stayed right on my couch looking out my sliding glass windows. Little did I know that all around me 16 or more tornado's touched down including the deadly one in Granbury, Tx not far from me.
Later a friend explained to me that I am supposed to turn on the TV and they will tell me if it is serious or not, but that an alarm means a touch down has occurred near you. Well, I guess I failed my first test.
Just this week, I was at work. The environment was primed for the "perfect" storm so we were on alert all day. In the early afternoon, they called a "Code black" and we had to go move all of our patients from their rooms into the hallways. It was an eerie feeling sitting in the hallway listening to the sounds. No storm touched down by us that day and many a storm experts said we were incredibly lucky.
Now, however, I am a bit more knowledgeable about these storms and I take them serious. The one in Oklahoma started from a blip of storm in the sky and turned into a massive E-5 tornado. I could choose to be scared and worry or I can trust that God has a perfect time for everything. The Bible speaks in numerous places that a person's days are numbered. There is a time and an hour destined for us as it says in Job: "A person's days are determined; You have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed." Worry isn't going to add to my life! Worry is not going to change my circumstances! I have been through enough difficult things in my life to realize that God has me in the palm of His hand and never lets me go. There may be times, I think He has forgotten me, or left, BUT always when I look back and see how He has provided for me, taken care of me and carried me through, I am AMAZED!!!!
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