Friday, March 02, 2012

Tornado Warning

The sky grew grey and the winds picked up and then the storm sirens started wailing. Ten minutes previously I had put Sophia down for her nap. I got on weather.com and saw that there was a tornado warning in effect for the next 30 minutes.

Even though I have lived in the Midwest for nearly six years, I called Kevin to see if I “really had to wake up a sleeping baby” and therefore mess up all my afternoon plans. (If you’re a mom, you know that nap time is the only time during the day that you are likely to accomplish anything.)

He asked if it was a “tornado warning” or a “tornado watch.” It’s a “tornado warning,” I said. He then told me that I either had to get Sophia up and take her to the basement or send the other two kids down to the basement and stay and watch out the window to make sure there weren’t any funnel clouds coming, in which case I would need to grab the baby and run.

Since I’m from California and don’t entirely trust myself to properly judge what the array of funnel clouds might look like—even though I have seen them in movies, of course—I woke up the baby.

As the kids and I sat in the basement to wait out the storm, we recalled that Clara’s recent AWANA verse was “Even the winds and the waves obey Him” (Matt. 8:27). Several times this semester, the verses the kids have been memorizing have really come in handy. I love how God works things out like that. Even though Clara asked questions like, “Does this mean our company isn’t coming tonight?” and “If we go upstairs, will we die, mom?” she didn’t seem scared. She remembered her verse and she was comforted.

God is in control and cares for us. We really are blessed. Even when our afternoons get "messed up."

1 comment:

Diary of an Autodidact said...

I introduced my kids to "Stormchasers" a few months ago. They loved it, although I wonder what they would think of a real storm. We at least got some serious lightning last summer, but Central CA is pretty boring when it comes to weather.

Stay safe!