Hanging by a Thread

Last night we were bombarded with a series of storms. We were warned that a tornado was very likely. Again and again. As I sit writing this morning the last of the storms is arriving. West of us, in Arkansas, there have beend deadly storms and tornadoes. Further south, in Texas, they suffer a severe drought. My yard is like a soaking wet sponge and we have multiple flash flood warnings. In Texas they worry about wild fires and dry grass.

Fr. Rene has lost power again. He has been on and off like a third world country the last couple of weeks. He lives in an older part of town where the trees are very big and the power lines are in the air. He has a generator which has saved his freezer full of food, but it has been tough on him.

As we sat eating dinner yesterday evening with my in-laws, celebrating a pending birthday, it was surreal. Great food and fun conversation, all the while the TV at the end of the room showed the approaching storm. Sort of like life, you know something is coming, but in the meantime enjoy what you have. When we arrived home we emptied out the closet and filled it will pillows and blankets and in went momma and the two kids. I recalled the news stories about flattened homes and wondered if we would end the night in tragedy. I said my prayers and waited. In the end, it was like all the other storms. Wind. Rain. Threats. Nothing more.

Power outages, sudden death from the skies, floods and drought: they are all a reminder of how fragile life is. A friend of mine frequently says, "We live in stick houses with a brick veneer." It is a reminder that things often look more solid then they are. Eventually, one of these storms is going to be the real thing. Even so, odds are good that I will not ever be harmed by one. Yet every storm, ever power outage, every flood is a reminder that our pleasant lives hang by a thread. It would not take much to turn our lives into a struggle for existence. We are so dependent on so many things 'going right.' We are dependent on others. We are dependent on God. It is a good reason to pray and a better reason to thank God.