Wow! The Power of Nature

- Link to NWS

We had a line of big storms plow through the Twin Cities Metro overnight. I very seldom wake up in thunderstorms. But this one woke me. It is amazing when there is constant lightning for a good half-hour or more. That means there's this constant rumble of thunder that never lets up.

Then add rain. I mean RAIN! Anywhere from .75" to 1.6" within a few miles of my home in about half an hour. It was blowing sideways, around, up and down. The rain gauge at the local Weather Bug recording station was obviously affected by the power going out.

Which may have been caused by wind gusts between 60 and 70 mph. Power was out for an hour and a half. Just as I turned on the TV to see what was happening.

After the rain stopped the lightning and the rumbling continued for a while. It was amazing to watch out the front window and the different ways the lightning illuminated the neighborhood. Front, side, back. Different shadows giving the houses different looks. And always the rumble.

It was a wild and wooly hour from 2:30 - 3:30.

Finally it moved away. The house got quiet. With no power all the little things that hum and purr were quiet. I laid in bed amazed by the silence. It is not something we hear very often in a house any more.

It was truly a time of awe which brings fear as well as amazement. If one doesn't have a little bit of fear at a moment like that one does not have a true appreciation of the power that is being displayed. Without that awe-some awe-fulness we do crazy things like drive into flooded roads or ignore storm warnings. To ignore the power at a time like that is to attempt to assert one's own power over the powers of the world around us- and perhaps even over God.

That is always a dangerous thing to do. If I have learned anything in my life it is that to ignore the power of God, whether shown in thunderstorms or God's will for one's life is to play with danger. Not because God is mean or vengeful, but because these are not tame powers. They are the raw power of the universe.

So admit it- we're pretty powerless over most things that can truly affect our lives. In accepting that we make a very big step forward in learning God's will and ways.