Tennessee Tornado

"For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker."

Psalm 95:3-6

This was NOT yesterday, but the tornado that hit my subdivision in Spring 2006. Our house was OK, but this was a neighbors.

I'm sure you have heard about out the Tornado damage here in Tennessee. My ministry partner Leigh and I (and our spouses) graduated from Union University (the school is all over the news). We have several from our church that are at Union right now. My sister-in-law has been texting her friends at Union all morning and they are all OK, but their dorm was severely damaged. About all that was salvageable were some clothes.



I get a little out of sorts with bad weather. However, this didn't happen to me until several years ago. I was a newly-wed working in downtown Nashville on the 9th floor of a 13 story building. When - out my office window I saw a tornado!!!! YES, gang. I saw it and will never forget it. The wind was whistling in the stairwell as hundreds quickly raced down all those steps to the basement. All the phones were out and I had no way to contact my husband. It happened around 2PM and it was 8PM before I was able to get home.



Last night, my kids were a little freaked out as well. You could hear the sirens warning of bad weather. The lightening was wild and the hail falling from the sky was huge! My middle child asked if we were going to die!!! The girls sleep upstairs by a HUGE window and were very nervous. So, last night I made a pallet in the floor by our bed for all three kiddos. They were pleased and after lots of giggles and silliness - were sound asleep by 10:30PM. At 1AM the storm really kicked up and I was on stand by to scoop them up and head to the closet. Luckily, that was not necessary.



My oldest is also out of school today due to the damage in our county. Our neighborhood is fine this time, but we were hit in Spring 2006. My house (we were building at the time) was not hit directly, but MANY in my subdivision were --- taking the complete back side off some of the houses. They looked like doll houses (see the above pic)! Walking around the debris was just creepy. The weather immediately after a storm like that is very weird. The air is still and dark - you see wondering pets, lawn chairs in tree tops, metal twisted in shapes that would blow your mind!



What can really blow your mind is knowing that God is still in control. That is a difficult concept to grasp during tragedy. In times like this I just think of so many different Psalms passages. I think of Psalm 5:4 that talks about how our God does not delight or take pleasure in tragedy/evil. I think of Psalm 56:3 "When I am afraid I will trust in you." Even Psalms 95 talks of how in His hands are the depths of the earth and the sea is His - He created it all AND it is all (even the weather) under His control.



Please pray today for those affected by yesterday's terrible storm.