Waiting for the Storm

The bamboo birds are confused.  Every dawn, right on schedule, they leave the bamboo grove in a blanket of dark wings across the sky and head due south.  This morning, although the winds aren't strong and it's not even raining, they congregate in a tree north of our house.  One by one they fly down to the street and hop around nervously.  The road is covered in wandering birds.  They know what's coming, but they don't know what to do.

The weather maps tell us a monster storm is approaching.  Will it really be as bad as they predict?  Maybe it will fizzle out.  Or will it be worse? I remember Katrina and watching that radar picture moving across the Gulf.  No one imagined the devastation. 

I am tempted to worry, especially about my kids and their new homes and the big trees surrounding them.  I think of the little ones asleep in their beds in the night next to glass windows when the storm is supposed to surge into our area.  I gaze outside at our trees that should have been trimmed long ago.  Fred says we will sleep in the basement tonight.

The Creator of the storm knows our worries and our needs.  "The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge."  Psalm 18.  "The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock."  Matthew 7.

My good husband is home building us a fire.  We're prepared for an emergency.  We don't know what's coming but we know what to do.  Our good God is in control.