Stormy Days are Here Again

With the arrival of the heat, the humidity becomes inevitable. Tonight will be the fourth night in a row -- the thunder is rolling in the distance as I type -- that we will have thunder storms. My dad says we have had more thunderstorms in the first six months of this year than we had all year last year, I think he's right. We even had one in February this year. Who has heard of a thunderstorm while there is still snow on the ground? Only in Ontario we natives say!

Thunderstorms and high winds always make me think of the story of Elijah in I Kings 19. The man is frustrated and frightened and flees to a cave in Horeb to wait for the Lord's direction. The the Lord tells Elijah to go out and stand on the mountain and wait for Him. While he is waiting, events occur that make Elijah think,"surely God is here with me now!" First is was the wind, then the earthquake, and finally the fire. But, when God did speak to him, it was in the gentle whisper. How often don't I forget to listen to God's voice in the whisper! I don't need a thunderstorm to know the mighty power of God, I can see His love for me in the simplest things, like the whistling call of the Cedar Waxwings in our treeline, the contented chatter of my children as they prepare for bed, or the delicate beauty of the new growth on all our spruce trees. God is here! I just need to listen for his gentle whisper!

I studied my camera manual, so now I'm off to see if I can get a lightning shot before the winds and rains roll in. It's deathly still here right now, which is not a good sign. Yesterday's deathly stillness brought very high winds that destroyed many trees and cracked limbs all around the county. Even our sturdy Norway maples did not come out unscathed yesterday.