Severe Weather

Yesterday we drove my mother in law, Barbara, to the airport in Little Rock, Arkansas, so she could fly to Utah to visit her daughter and her daughter’s family.  We drove to Little Rock because my husband, the Scottish man that he is, found a really good price on her ticket and decided it would be nice for us to see new, scenic territory.  It was scenic and the sun was shining all the way to Little Rock and even after we got there, but once we dropped Barbara off, the rains started.

We drove to Conway, Arkansas, and decided to explore this sweet little Arkansas town, we did a little shopping and while we were in one quaint little shop, the salesgirl came up to us and said, "you can continue shopping, but we are going to lock the doors because the owner called and said there are tornado warnings out".  We left the store immediately and sat in the car listening to the emergency broadcasting system tone followed by a listing of the counties under severe weather warnings—including tornadoes—then decided to make a run for it and get ahead of the weather.  I don’t know if that was the smartest decision the two of us ever made, but it was exciting.

We weren’t that familiar with Arkansas and didn’t have an atlas, so we depended on my limited ability to view where we were on the GPS which never showed the little towns being listed nor any counties—at least I wasn’t able to view them with my limited technical abilities with these advanced gadgets.  So we blindly raced in torrential rain to get what we believed to be “ahead of the storm”.

We were not in my car with the broken passenger-side windshield wiper, so I was able to sit on the end of my seat and assist my husband as he strained to drive at speeds that we will not mention for fear there might be an Arkansas State Patrol reading my blog.  I looked in the sky for “twisters” that might be forming and strained to read the signs of the little towns and counties that we were in so we could compare where we were with the listings that kept coming over the radio.

We stopped to get gas and while we were there, the hail came, so we waited it out under the shelter of the gas pumps.  Cars and trucks pulled in to find shelter there also and we all waited while listening intently to the radio to see if we should seek shelter from a tornado, but when the hailed stopped, we decided again to make a dash to get “ahead of the storms”. 

We had no sooner left the gas station when it started hailing again, but not as heavy.  I was praying and straining to read signs and Phil was driving like a race car driver, (an inexperienced race-car driver) and we got “ahead of the storm”. We listened closely to the radio and tried to identify any counties or areas they were advising people to take shelter, but we didn’t have a clue what county we were in and had limited knowledge of where the areas were that were under tornado threats.   

As we drove, I would find signs that identified what county we were in and we realized that the county we were in was not a county being listed on the radio.  Every so often, there would be a break in the weather and we could relax and view the beautiful waterfalls coming down from the bluffs beside the road, the waterfalls were the result of water-soaked ground not being able to absorb the moisture and severe flooding, but they were still pretty.

As we became more aware of where we were in relationship to the storms all around us, I looked at Phil and said—the storms have been to the east, west and south of us this whole trip, Phil nodded and I think we both had a sense that we had been protected.  It had been a pretty intense two-hour drive, but what an adventure.  I felt like Helen Hunt and that other duded in the movie about storm chasers, only we were running away from the storms instead of into them.  I have a whole new appreciation for storm chasers and will pray for their safety whenever I hear of threats of severe weather from now on.

When we made it out of the line of severe storms, lightning was flashing from one end of the sky to the other—it was amazing.  I thought of that song that talked about God lighting up the sky to show that He was with me, so today I looked up the lyrics and wanted to share them with you.  The song is by a group called “The Afters” and the title is “You Light Up the Sky”.

When I'm feeling all alone
With so far to go
The signs are no where on this road
Guiding me home
When the night is closing in
Is falling on my skin
Oh God will You come close?

Light,  light, light up the sky
You light up the sky to show me You are with me
I can't deny
No, I can't deny that You are right here with me
You've opened my eyes
So I can see You all around me
Light, light, light up the sky
You light up the sky to show me
That You are with me

When stars are hiding in the clouds
I don't feel them shining
When I can't see You beyond my doubt
The silver lining
When I've almost reached the end
Like a flood You're rushing in
Your love is rushing in

So I run straight into Your arms
You're the bright and morning sun
To show Your love there's nothing You won't do

I know you skeptics out there are thinking that it was just a coincidence that we drove right down the middle of a severe storm pattern and the tornados were all around us but not in the counties we were in when we were in them, but I got my mother in law a mug that has a quote by Albert Einstein that says, “There are two ways to live your life…One is as though nothing is a miracle, the other as though everything is a miracle”.

Today I choose to believe that God watched over Phil and me and kept us safe last night and although there may be more severe weather, I know He will light up my sky.