Behold, the power of God

   Last night, a tornado was seen touching down on the campus of UT Tyler. That's about 1 minute from my house. For three hours, heavy rain and frequent forecast interruption on the t.v. had Stephan and I watching and waiting for the signal to grab Noah from his crib, corral the dogs inside and bunker down under a mattress in the hallway. That signal came at about 8:00. The sirens in Tyler had been going off in the distance for about half an hour, but Stephan wasn't too worried, as the weatherman was only urging neighboring areas to seek shelter and not us. Then the wind picked up and the sirens sounded right outside our door. I went into the nursery and scooped up Noah who wasn't quite asleep after waking up to a loud crash of thunder earlier, but was out of it enough not to struggle or make a fuss when I sat down with him in my lap in the hallway. The electricity went out as Stephan dragged the mattress from the guest bedroom to lean over me and Noah.
      Noah and I laid down under the mattress and listened to the sound of the wind howling furiously. It sounded so spooky and terrifying, but I was not afraid. I was in awe. I realized that Noah was experiencing his first tornado. Also, as Noah snuggled into my belly and our panicking cat huddled at my feet, I prayed. I didn't ask for God to make the rain stop, in fact, I think I'm partially to blame for the storms last night since I've been praying for a lot of rain for a week. No, instead, I asked for God to protect us from this glimmer of His power, this mere glimpse of his awe-inspiring strength, and then I praised Him in the storm.
      It really was magnificent. I could hear the winds raging and the rain thrashing against windows, doors, and walls, but I knew my family was safe in the house God gave us. Stephan told me later that, as Noah and I were laying in our mattress safe-room and he stood watch, He watched the trees in our back yard bend in half under the fury of the wind. All that, and I knew that God would keep us safe. As you can tell be the fact that I am typing up this story the next day, we all lived and no trees were dropped on our house. Noah will probably not remember last night, but I'll treasure it for years. Our God is bigger than tornadoes and hurricanes and any natural disasters that threaten our lives. That one of the many things that makes God so great.