THE COMING STORM

We had a new adventure during February and March!  We left home and stayed in Orange Beach, Alabama.  I was thrilled about this and Bill went along.  Bless his heart.

I have been to beaches before and we have been to Orange Beach before.  What I have never experienced is a storm on a beach.  Thankfully, not a bad storm like a tornado or a hurricane, but a pretty big thunderstorm.

You need to know that I love to watch it storm.  As a kid, I would sit in the corner of the porch and watch the rain and lightening.  I loved the sound of thunder.  I still love to watch it storm.  I will sit in front of a window and watch the trees dance and the sky turn black.  But a storm by the water’s edge is different.

We had a very small storm when we first got here.  Last night was that storm on steroids.  At one in the morning, YES MORNING, I stood with the balcony door open and listened.  The thunder sounded like it would start way out and then grow louder as it came closer to shore.  No.. it was coming from the west.  No.. the east.  It was like having surround-sound.  The thunder was rumbling in circles.  I know.  Sounds strange, but I don’t know how else to describe it.  The lightening would look like someone was shining a flashlight through the clouds and then a bolt would streak from nowhere.  It is amazing how dark it is when looking out over the water.  Did I tell you how much I love to watch it storm?

When I spoke with a new friend, she said she had gotten up, dressed, and put shoes on just in case.

Sadly, while I was enjoying the spectacular show, towns were being devastated and lives turned upside down by tornadoes. A storm can have such beauty in one spot and such destruction in another.

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It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining.  And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.     Luke 23:44-45

What would it have been like to be there?  The sky turning dark in the middle of the day.  The temperature would have dropped.  The fear would have been strong enough to smell.  The cross.  The hill.  The soldiers.  The believers.  The mother.  

What do I see?  I see beauty.

Did you do a double take?  Did you re-read what I wrote?  Beauty was a surprise to me too.  I have never thought of this as a beautiful sight.  How can there be beauty in Jesus hanging on a cross?  Bleeding!  In pain!  When I look at the Cross, I feel such shame, but I also see my hope.  My redemption.  I see great love.

And that is the most beautiful sight of all.  The beauty is the love of Christ which turns the dark sky to a light so bright we will always be able to find our way to Him.  Find our way to the Cross.