God's Camera

Why I battled the storm

Friday night was a harrowing night for me. The evening started out so innocently. It was the last night of VBS at church and it was a BLAST! We had a big water-slide set up for the kids. It was a wet and wild evening, full of laughter and smiles.

Then, with hardly a whisper of warning a derecho storm attacked the area. I saw that clouds darkening and felt the wind, so I ran to my car to head home and weather the storm with my family.  We live about 25 miles from our church and those 25 miles felt more like 100! No sooner had I entered the interstate and the full fury of mother nature was lashing out. My car was surrounded by lightning, thunder shook the area, and the wind did her best to blow my car off the road.

I turned on my worship album and just prayed over and over again, "Lord please get home to my family. I just want to be with my family, please." It was a plea of fear from a child to her daddy to protect her. As I prayed, drove and the weather attacked I knew in the midst of even this the Lord was with me. His eye was on me, His hand was covering my car.

Somehow amidst the fallen trees and other debris I was able to navigate my way home. As soon as I pulled into our driveway I said, "Thank you Lord. I'm here." I got out of the car and rushed inside to hug my husband and cuddle my daughter. I have never felt so thankful for those two faces! It felt so good to be with my family. The storm raged on outside downing power lines and leaving us in the dark, but it didn't matter-- God had delivered me home.

We ended up being without power from Friday night till lunch time on Tuesday. While it was a headache it was survivable. I had my family and we were all safe. Then, today I received an e-mail from my aunt and it contained a little story that I just love.

"One day a little girl was walking home and a thunderstorm came up, so her mom jumped into the family car to pick her daughter up. When the mom came upon her daughter she noticed that each time a bolt of lightning would flash her little girl would pause and look up at the sky. When the child was in the car the mom asked her about this. "Well mom, God was busy taking my picture so I wanted Him to see me smiling."

What a great picture of lightning--God's camera flash! Friday as I was driving home through the raging storm, God was taking my picture!

-JLP-

How do you picture storms? Do you see them as something to fear like I did, or as an opportunity to smile at Jesus as the little girl did?