The Storm

Have you ever been in one of those storms… you know the kind where your not sure if your going to make it out? Mori and I stayed with my parents one summer in Rockford Illinois. And one day when we were coming home from someplace we saw this huge black front off to the west. We turned onto the road that goes by my parent’s subdivision and we realized we were headed straight for it. At first I was all manly and was like “oh this is no big deal”, but then I saw the sky wasn’t just dark, it was one of those erie shades of green, the ones that tornados like to hide in.

As we drove nearer to the cloud the wind started to pick up, but no rain. We looked to our right at some of the businesses nearby and all of their emergency lights were on because their power had gone out. We then noticed that all of the street lights were out as well. I began to get this sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. All I wanted to do is get to my parents house as quick as possible and get to the basement.

As we drove closer to this unearthly looking dark cloud we heard a huge BOOM!... then it hit us. It wasn’t like it started trickling or spitting, it was like a tidal wave of water hit us. Torrential downpour. I couldn’t even see two feet in front of our car. As I struggled to make out the brake lights in front of us we began to see cars pulling off to the side of the road. Then branches started flying off of trees and hitting cars. Some of the branches we had to drive over because they were in the middle of the road. They were not the little sticks you pick up in your yard during the spring. We were literally driving over huge logs. The wind was blowing so hard that our car started to rock. I still could not see hardly anything in front of me, and the whole time I’m thinking, “I’M DRIVING RIGHT INTO THE MIDDLE OF A TORNADO.” I just knew any minute we were going to be sucked up by the funnel and tossed to Kansas.

We finally inched our way to my parent’s road and made it to their house. We left the car in the driveway and ran into the house, grabbed our cat, apple, and ducked down into the basement. The funny thing is, when we turned on the news, it not only didn’t say anything about a tornado, but not even a peep about a severe thunderstorm. I tried to play it off like I knew what I was doing all along, but that was one of the scariest storms I’ve been through.

Sometimes life feels like that doesn’t it? Where you feel like your surrounded by a huge storm not knowing if you’ll make it through it alive… you can’t really see anything in front of you, and all you see is a whirlwind of debris flying around you.

God never promises us a life full of nothing but blue skies. He never said “there will never be any storms.” He only promises us that He will be there with us through the “stormy” times in our lives...

“Even when I walk THROUGH [not around] the dark valley of death, I will not be afraid, FOR YOU ARE CLOSE BESIDE ME.” -Psalm 23:4

Whatever your storm, know that God is with you!