You can imagine my surprise when a weather alert appeared on my cell phone. Tornado Watch!
This type of storm is extremely rare in our State making the news flash seem impossible. Yet, the report on my husbands weather scanner confirmed the prediction and warned everyone in our area to stay indoors for the next few hours. I walked back outside and looked into the early night sky. Creeping across the horizon to the west was a huge black mass. Heavy grey clouds, full of lightning, intermittently broke through the darkness. What struck me with fear was the eerie, dead silence of this thunderstorm as it moved forward in all its power.
The swiftness of the unexpected made me realize how important it is to be prepared for life's storms. Before disaster strikes we need to be rooted and grounded in our belief system. Jesus needs to be our trusted friend and counselor when the sky is still crystal clear and blue.
Z. Randall Stroope put these words of hope to song from fragments of Jewish text found on a cellar wall in Cologne, Germany during World War 11. It is believed to have been scrawled by a child hiding from the Nazis.
I believe in the sun, even when it is not shining.
And I believe in love, even when there's no one there.
And I believe in God even when he is silent.
I believe through any trial, there is always a way.
But sometimes in the suffering and hopeless despair
My heart cries for shelter, to know someone's there.
But a voice rises within me, saying hold on my child.
I'll give you strength, I'll give you hope,
Just stay a little while.
If your caught in the "eye of the storm," be encouraged. God said, "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified, because the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you or forsake you." Deuteronomy 31:6
