Monday, May 24, 2010

The Feel of Thunder

As an engineer by degree, I like to know how things work. Right now the sky is just a sickly, near-dead gray, but we're supposed to get a thunder storm. So I just googled lightning. Apparently, the initial cause of this phenomenon is still a mystery. The suspect line-up includes solar winds and ice particles, so I'd say we're not on the cusp of solving that little mystery.
But, even if we were, I'm not sure how far that would take us. It is one thing to sit and discuss, in long boring words, the advent of a bolt of lightning.
It is quite another to see the darkened heavens torn asunder by its raw power. In that instant, everything seems to slow except the burning spear of light. Drops of rain pause their descent to watch. Even the voice of thunder can't keep up.
I really hope we get the storm today. There is nothing like a Georgia thunder storm. The ground shakes and the air crackles and the rain sheets the world away. It is absolutely impossible to think of weather with detached curiosity when your heartbeat reverberates with the thunder. It makes me feel like a small part of a large world. It strips away the pretense of explanations and reminds me what it is to be powerless.
I reminds me of the magnitude of God, as captured in Job 38-39. He, like his lightning, is one thing to speak of and quite another to experience. He created this force that can shake the very earth. He made my heart that skips when the shock of thunder vibrates through the air. He came up with the very idea of rain. He knows the initial cause of lightning, being its Creator and all, and He also knows that head knowledge can never explain what the storm really is.
I think He made it that way on purpose. On days like this I am reminded of His awesome power and am humbled and honored before Him. Thank you God for lightning, thunder, rain. For storms and their power, which when compared to yours, is like a wind-up trinket. Thank you for being bigger than it all. Please let it thunder today.

1 comment:

  1. I love thunder and lightning. It makes it worth getting wet or disrupting my plans but I hadn't thought of it in comparison to the intricacies of a heart beat.

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