Sweet Calmness

I know exactly what I was doing one year ago, to the hour. I had just finished cleaning up the kitchen and our daughter was still sitting at the table sipping her cold, chicken noodle soup and asking if she could get up yet. My husband was watching the weather channel because a storm was supposed to be coming our way. A few minutes later it was a bright yellowish, orange outside our back windows. It was so calm, not a gust of wind in sight. The weatherman mentioned something about a tornado. Our daughter looked at my husband and said in a fearful voice, "Is a tornado comin' to our house Daddy?" We reassured her that the sirens would go off if there was and that it was so calm outside, she had nothing to worry about.

Ten minutes later, our then 7 year old and 1 year old cling to my side as we sat on the couch. My husband anxiously looked out the window. We didn't hear a tornado siren, we just heard wind. A small tree, which is usually standing vertical, was now horizontal as the wind suddenly howls. It goes black outside and the lights flicker, then they go out. Wesley and I looked at each other and say, "Get in the hallway!"

Two seconds later, the window in our kitchen busts out as a gust of wind, rain and leaves hit us in our faces as we stand in the hallway. "Run to the bathroom!" one of us yells. Right outside our bathroom is an attic cubbie hole. Pressure was released and the cover to it, flops around making a loud banging noise. We sat on our bathroom floor in the pitch black, our children are crying and oddly enough we felt peace. We held hands and Wesley said a prayer. In the middle of his prayer, a verse came to me. It was a verse I had read two days before. It wasn't a verse that had stood out at the time. I hadn't made a point to memorize it, but there it was, in the midst of the storm; a verse, in my head. I knew it could have only come from one place.

"Have no fear of sudden disaster...for the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being snared." (Proverbs 3:25-26

Yall-that verse, of all verses came to my mind! Isn't that just amazing? The Lord knew two days before, as I was sipping my coffee, reading my Bible and doing my "usual routine" that I was going to lean on that verse. He knew that tornado was going to hit my neighborhood and He prepared me in advance for it. I am still humbled every time I think about that.

I can remember right after it hit, a friend of ours who lived up the street, came and knocked on our door to check on us. We walked out our front door to total pandemonium. It looked like there was snow covering the streets as the insulation was blown everywhere. There were roof tacks and lawn equipment, trampolines and gutters strewn everywhere. I felt as if I was in a movie and I was dreaming. I had never seen something like that before.

That night we all slept in the hallway right outside the bathroom. We were told that another storm was coming and our children were not about to go anywhere without us in a dark house! We snuggled up together and slept as best we could. Thankfully there was not another bad storm, just a lot of heavy rain. I can remember laying there, listening to the neighbor across the street pounding with a hammer through the lightening and the rain trying to cover up a hole in his roof where the rain was pouring in his living room.

We were SO blessed and SO lucky. That tornado ripped the roof off my next door neighbor and the house next to hers and the houses across our street. My house, the pressure was released when that kitchen window popped out and it saved our roof. It was as if that tornado jumped over my house and kept going. My poor neighbor was in her bathroom with her daughter when her roof poped off and the storm and rain poured in, on top of them. I can't even imagine. Now we didn't come out totally unscathed, but our damage was so small compared to so many.

In the days that followed, we became good friends with our neighbors. I was able to share my testimony many times. There were several people who said they thought they were going to die that night. They were amazed when we said, we really were not afraid.

I have shared my story many times. Just last week, I was registering Foster to get his tubes and the lady working there and I got in a conversation about how the year anniversary was coming up. I was able to tell her how God spoke so clearly to me through that storm. I walked out of the hospital amazed that God was still giving me an opportunity to share.

Now I know that next time (if there is a next time) that a tornado hits, we may lose our house. There were a lot of very good people who lost so much. Sometimes bad things happen to good people. For some reason or another, this time, God had another plan for my family and I.

I am reminded just how important it is to read His Word. He holds the key to your tomorrows. He knows the future while we may have plans for tomorrow-do we really know what is going to happen? I often wonder how I would have felt that night, had I not read my Bible that week. Would I have been scared to death? Would I have freaked out and only scared my children even more? I am so glad that I will never know! What a reminder of how much He talks to us through His Word-if we will only be willing to listen.

PS~As a side note: For those of you who are "date" people, you might remember that the storm hit the night of March 1st. I will always remember it because my brothers birthday was the next day. I am more of a "day" person-I know it happened on a Thursday because my husband couldn't get to work on Friday and given that it is leap year, March 1st will not fall until Saturday. Just had to throw that tidbit in there, for all you technical folks!