Thunderstorms

As a child, thunderstorms sent a rush of panic into me. Growing up in muggy Louisiana, thunderstorms are basically a post 3pm, daily event in the warmest months. Needless to say, mucho thunderstorms led to mucho panic. The threat of tornados served as the root of my fear. All those emergency drills at school really got to me I guess!

How ironic that now I LOVE thunderstorms. I find them mysterious, a bit romantic, and most of all spiritual. Thunder is so cool. Lightening so intense. Rain so powerful, yet soothing all at once. They just downright fascinate me. I remember learning in elementary school that thunder occurs when two clouds bump into each other. I smile even now at the description because I use it with my own kids!

For the past 10 years or so, when a thunderstorm begins, if I'm around a Bible I read Job 36:26-33, Job 37 and 38. Here's a teaser for you (because yes, you are going to have to look these passages up): From Job 36

26 How great is God—beyond our understanding!
The number of his years is past finding out.

29 Who can understand how he spreads out the clouds,
how he thunders from his pavilion?

30 See how he scatters his lightning about him,
bathing the depths of the sea.

From Job 37:
1 "At this my heart pounds
and leaps from its place.

2 Listen! Listen to the roar of his voice,
to the rumbling that comes from his mouth.

3 He unleashes his lightning beneath the whole heaven
and sends it to the ends of the earth.

And from Job 38:
1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm.

Did you just get chills? God's word provides the most riveting reading experience you can have. Truly. These passages give such great descriptions of God's power and such beautiful explanations of a storm.

Thunderstorms remind me that God has a voice not only inside of us - but rumbling throughout all of creation. This is no wimpy God we serve - but a larger than ALL life God who could remove our breath with a thought if He wanted to, yet, I repeat YET, He gave His only Son to draw us back to Himself. He wants to know us personally. Sometimes we forget the true awesomeness of our God. Thunderstorms today may be a good reminder.

And just for fun - here's another verse teaser from Nahum 1:
3 The LORD is slow to anger and great in power;
the LORD will not leave the guilty unpunished.
His way is in the whirlwind and the storm,
and clouds are the dust of his feet.

God is so much "badder" than Jack Bauer (there's a nod for all you "24" fans!)