The fury of the storm rolled through around midnight, waking me from a sound sleep. Sharp cracks of thunder and bright lightening got rid of the last bit of fogginess in my brain. I am wide awake and alert.

I am a storm watcher. When I was seven years old, a violent F5 tornado devastated our community. It demolished our church, a shopping center and several homes. I grew up practicing tornado drills in school. I was taught that tornados sound like a freight train coming through town, whistle blowing.  I know what to listen for during a storm.

As an adult, my fear of intense storms has quieted. However, I am prepared to take shelter when I feel it is necessary.  Tonight, it may be necessary: our area is under a tornado watch. But it is warm and cozy under the covers, and I hesitate to jump up and fall to my knees in the hall, doing my best tornado drill pose.  I convince myself that it is just a little thunderstorm.

The thunder rattles the walls and the rain is blowing directly into the window.  Wind whistles between the house and nearby workshop. It sounds like our house is about to blow off the foundation, like Dorothy’s home in The Wizard of Oz. It sounds like a  freight train…

I jump out of bed and hurry to the living room window. I am amazed when I enter the room.  It is calm and quiet.  I look out at the storm, and see normal rainfall coming down, not the monsoon I had envisioned in the bedroom.  The wind is more like a heavy breeze, instead of the  F5 tornado I heard in the bedroom! What a difference! My fears calm, and I return to bed to sleep soundly through the night.

The storms of my life are like that. The wind is blowing, the rain is pouring, and thunder drowns out all other noise. It is chaos, and all I hear is the sound of the storm, the freight train barreling straight for me.  The tornado can’t be stopped. The debris of my life will be scattered all over.

 

It’s hard to step away from the uproar. The wind keeps pulling me right back in. Everything is turbulent – my thoughts, my emotions.

What if I walked away, into a different room?  And looked out a different window? What if I stepped into the shelter of Christ’s strong arms and watched the tornado?

What if I whispered His powerful name….Jesus.

And He answered “Peace, Be still!” And the wind stopped and it became calm (Mark 4:39).

Jesus said we would have trouble. He won’t make my storms go away, but He will carry me through them. With Christ’s presence in the storms of my life, the calm will come. HE will be my peace!

John 16:33 “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage, I have overcome the world.” (NASB)

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Photography by John Chauvin