Near Misses

The kids and I, along with my dad, set off today for our roadtrip to my hometown of Seward, NE. Unfortunately, my husband has to stay home because he is teaching summer school.

I'll spare you any boringdetails of pit stops and how soon it took for one of the kids to ask "are we there yet?"

I do want to share how much we appreciate your prayers of safety and how thankful I am for God's perfect timing and protection.
  
The trip was relatively uneventful until we stopped for dinner in Cross Lanes, WV, a small community west of Charleston. As soon as we ordered our food and sat down a storm rolled in. It got super dark outside and the lights in the restaurant kept going out. Normally I don't mind storms. In fact, I kind of dig them. Ever since I was a kid, storms have reminded me of God's awesone power. 

When he thunders, the waters in the heavens roar; he makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth. He sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses. Jeremiah 51:16 NIV

However, I have a tendency to feed off of other people's energy and emotions--a characteristic of a classic extrovert. As the storm got stronger other diners began to voice concern. The family sitting next to us grabbed their food and hurried to their car, an older couple started speculating that it was a tornado, and a young girl started to whimper. This started to make me nervous but I did what I could to keep myself and the kids calm.

As we started to munch on our tacos I asked Dad if he thought we should leave. He assured me that staying put was much safer. I pulled out my phone and checked the weather. There was only a severe storm warning, no tornado.

About a minute later there was a huge bang on the window behind me. As I looked outside, white chunks of something were falling down. At first I thought it was hail, but then someone in the restaurant said that the sign broke. I assumed it was a sign on the side of the resataurant and we went back to eating. 

Twenty minutes later the storm passed and we decided to hit the road again. As we walked to the car we discovered what actually hit the building. It was the sign from the gas station nextdoor. In it's original form I guess it was a 10-foot square and likely made of plexiglass. It was mounted roughy 100' feet off the ground so I guess a strong enough wind just popped it out of it's mounting.  

Once we were seated in the car we looked at the restaurant and saw the damage the sign had created. It tore up the roof directly above where we were sitting. Looking at the damage, Dad estimated that the sign was 250-300 pounds. If it had hit just 8-10 feet lower it would have broken through the window we were sitting against. I hate to think of what injuries it could have caused.

But God is sovereign, he is so good, and his timing is perfect.  We had contemplated stopping later for dinner but then we would have been caught in the storm while driving. He made that gust of wind strong enough to carry the sign a few feet higher. He made it possible for my dad to join us on this trip. He also made RainX possible and gave my husband the skills of masterfully applying to my windshield.

This bit of excitement in our trip makes me wonder about all the near misses and storms God has kept me sheltered from that I have been oblivious to. I'm a little embarrassed that it took a literal storm to make me take pause and praise him.

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