Storm

Last night, we had another crazy storm come through Columbia. We popped a movie in the DVD player and the power flickered on an off. We decided we better wait to watch the movie. Looking across the street to the Crazy Carpet Cleaning Guy's house, we saw a transformer blow out and I grabbed my phone to call the fire department. We watched the fireworks show for a couple minutes. This poor man. I don't think I ever clarified why he was outside at 3 am yelling about things looking like a tornado the last time I wrote about him and that storm that occurred. But, the next morning, we realized that he had a 70,000 ton tree fall on his house. It came within 3 feet of crushing one of the bedrooms that thankfully no one was sleeping in.

If something like that happened to us, I'm pretty sure we would be outside running around like a crazy at 3 am, too.

Hart started gathering things up to prepare for the storm (flashlights, etc) and I pushed the AC down to 70. I started praying. Once again, we live in an older neighborhood full of beautiful hardwood trees. I lifted up our safety and prayed for a hedge of protection around our home and if God would be willing to allow us not to lose power. I also prayed for our next door neighbors, Mark and Linda, that they would be safe and not lose power. Hart and I decided to snuggle up in our bedroom and watch the movie on my laptop, meanwhile the storm was brewing. Before bed, I checked, darkness across the street. We moved the AC back to 78.

Fast forward to this morning.

Micaiah and I go for a walk. Tree debris lined the street and I counted 3 huge trees that had fallen on fellow neighbor's homes.

I dropped off a ziploc full of cookies to our neighbors (the gangstas that live on our other  side that have no grass in their front yard) Do you nickname all your neighbors, too? Or is that just me? I made them cookies so that they won't kill us. No, actually, I made them cookies because they helped me get Abe back when he ran off yesterday. So, maybe they are nice gangstas.

The gangstas didn't have power. While walking I saw other neighbors, they didn't have power either. Were we the only ones with power?

I realize that God would still be good if we did lose power and spent the night hot in our house, like everyone else, but I'm thankful that God allowed us to keep our power and enjoy our AC, so that I can write about how amazing my God is. You see, my God is God of gods and Lord of kings. It is HE who decides what happens, and I'm thankful for my God's plan and what he does in our life.

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When I was 3, Hurricane Hugo came through SC. It was a horrible storm and my family lived in Beaufort, SC (on the coast for those who don't know). We had to evacuate and move inland. I don't remember much about that night, but I do remember one thing. I remember my mom praying. She prayed over our car. She prayed for a hedge of protection over it. She prayed for our safety. My mom has always been a prayer warrior, and I love that about her.

The next day, we went out to our car. Do you know WHAT? Our car was the ONLY car that did NOT have a cracked windshield in the entire parking lot. Every car around ours was cracked.

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I think that might be my earliest memory of realizing that there was a God. And, he was a God that answered prayer. Last night, I know asking for God to keep our power on was really a selfish prayer. I just didn't want to be hot, but the truth is that God answered when I asked and I'm thankful he allows me to see how he works, even in simple things like this! Thank you, Jesus!