Twister Touchdown?

 

“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.^” *

The weather in southeast Michigan where Al and I now reside, is quite different than that of the San Joaquin Valley in California, my home for the major part of seventy-eight years. Michigan has long, cold winters and humid summers. Central California has long summers with dry heat and fairly mild winters, that is in comparison to what we experience in the Midwest.

Rainfall here usually averages over 30 inches a year, whereas rain was scarce in California.  When we first moved to Michigan, I used to look up at the sky during a storm and wonder where all of that rain was coming from. No wonder everything was so green and lush!

It seems to me that the weather here is more volatile, with strong winds and occasional touchdowns of tornados. Even if the sky is blue without a cloud in sight, the sound of the tornado siren blaring in the neighborhood during a monthly drill makes me anxious. Frightening images of neighborhoods being flattened, trees and wires downed in a jumbled pile, rooftops torn off the tops of buildings and people scrambling for shelter, come to mind.

I’ll never forget that scene from the “Wizard of Oz” when Dorothy and her little dog Toto barely made it back to their house before the tornado touched down, lifting it off of the foundation and carrying them far away to the land of Oz. It made a lasting impression upon me! As a result, each tornado threat is taken seriously.

When we heard the sound of the siren, our original plan was to go down to the basement and take refuge in the bathroom downstairs. With no outside windows, it seemed fairly safe. However, there was one major problem—our dog TJ was deathly afraid of the basement! If he was conscious, there was no way TJ was going down to the basement!

During those few times we did hear the sound of the siren giving an actual warning, we cowered in the hallway holding tightly on to him. Nothing ever came of those warnings though, thankfully. Now that TJ is no longer with us, the basement is the best option for safety.

Last weekend, I was in the grocery store when an alarm rang through the large building. “It couldn’t be…” I thought. But it was! A tornado warning!

A loud voice announced over the intercom that all store employees were to head for their safe area. All shoppers were to go to the nearest restroom immediately. This was repeated several times, to make sure that everyone heard the announcement. I rushed to the front of the store, left the shopping cart, and went into a restroom designated as a “tornado sheltering place.”

The small area was packed with people standing side by side, most of them looking at their cell phones. There was very little talking. Although it had been overcast all day, with rain predicted for early evening, nothing had been said on the local weather report about tornados.

An alert on our muted cell phone had escaped my notice. I would have been oblivious, had not the announcement been made over the store’s intercom. We squeezed together as more people arrived—including a family with a young child and a baby in a baby carrier, and a lady in an electric shopping cart who steered carefully through the doorway and the maze of people—until there were approximately twenty of us inside.

 Except for the beeping of the electric cart every few minutes, the room was filled with a tense silence. I just prayed and waited…for what? None of us knew. After what seemed a very long time, someone opened the door and said, “It’s over!” Thank God! No tornado touchdowns in our part of Michigan that day!

When trouble befalls us, we don’t have to be afraid. God is watching over us. We are safe in His “everlasting arms.”

Help us, Lord, to believe that! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

“The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” (Deuteronomy 33:27a NIV)

“The Lord will keep you from harm—he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.” (Psalm 121:7-8 NIV)

*Psalm 46: 1-3 NIV