The Storm

This is a record storm!

The pressure is dropping, it's picking up energy!

Wow! Look at the backwall of the eye - it's so sharply defined!

A sudden upgrade from Tropical Storm to a Category 2 Hurricane.

This is incredible! From Category 1 to Category 5 in 6 hours!

Now it's turning North, but it will probably bend South-East!

It is now predicted to make landfall as a Category 4 - but what we really need to watch, as the wind-shear spreads this system out, is the huge storm surge which, we expect, will inundate low-lying ground.

So, get out while you can, or, if not, hunker-down and try to ride it out at home (not in the basement: stay on the second floor!) - please stay safe: this freak-weather-event could take your life if you're caught!

Then, suddenly it's here - it actually feels far worse: howling winds, lashing rain, flood-defences overwhelmed, debris in the air, trees uprooted and roofing torn-off - power lines crash down as transformers flash with sparks and the night-sky is lit up.

Then in the eye - quite eerily, a lull: it's time to catch your breath in a brief respite of calm - before the gales roar again: it is dark, dangerous, and cold with, yet again, brace yourself, more catastrophic winds.

And, perhaps surprisingly, as fast as it arrived, the storm is gone - the wreckage is surveyed, and, for those who took to high ground, or heeded advice to stay-put, it is time to grieve, look in disbelief, thank God for your life, gather what's been spared, and get up and go on, if you can.

Thank the Lord for this amazing mercy - storms do not continue everlastingly or forever: it may be terrible at the time but, after the strike, and its devastating worse, the weather system will pass over, then fizzle-out!

And what a wonderful comfort, if we let ourselves be taught by nature - it is good to remind ourselves, in the middle of fierce storms - when it is frighteningly dark, and it feels like dead of night - that what is true of the world of meteorology is also true in the spiritual realm: monster storms are allowed to do their worst, but the God of Love, so orders His most-wise providence, concerning his child or Church, that destructive winds, that do his bidding, will cease sooner than we think. So in the storm-surge, don't give up, or lose hope, but trust, be patient, and wait.

That temporary gales might shake-up the sons of men is no surprise: but, so that they might be short, and of limited length and effect, there was one Storm of storms, which packed an eternal punch, with infinite hurricane force - it howled in the face of Christ as He suffered on the Cross (he had no top floor, high ground, or interstate to get out): he took the full weight of hit, so that, for those who believe and take refuge in Him, this storm of wrath, which were deserts for our own guilt, might press upon Him, and pass over us.