We are supposed to have some bad storms tonight with possible tornadoes. Does that scare you?
As a child in southwestern Oklahoma, tornadoes were the norm – hiding in the hallway under a mattress or in the neighbor’s storm cellar. There was actually something quite thrilling about it, to be honest. But tornadoes in the dead of night were not a notion back then. No, our Oklahoma twisters came faithfully during daylight hours, usually disrupting my mother’s carefully coordinated dinner plans. The uninvited arrival was an exciting caveat to our everyday, one that meant we’d be a little later to the bath and, thus, later to bed.
But we no longer live in the heart of tornado alley. We are now hours east where tornados do their bidding during human slumber, where the leftovers of those daylight storms drum up one last ungraceful encore for an unconscious audience.
These midnight tornados bring with them no shine or glory. There’s no late-to-bed victory for children and no mother’s excuse for burned biscuits – only the possibility of waking up to dismemberment or loss. What these violent nocturnal assailants leave in their path is nothing short of destruction and death.
So, to God I give my concerns, dread for the midnight tornados. If I am woken to a gruesome sight, I pray for His peace to flood me so I may be a source of peace for others, an outlet for God’s order and wisdom. And I will sleep rest assured that if we bed down one last time tonight then, tomorrow, we will awaken to glory in Gloryland. And, in that hopeful expectation, there is the anticipation of every excitement imaginable to mankind.
And, so, I will look forward to going to bed early on these stormy nights, whether so I may waken to be a cultivator of peace or a citizen in a new, perfect land. To quote the apostle Paul: For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
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