True Story
Today the kids spent literally hours playing outside at a neighbor's in their sprinkler. It was a lovely 70 degrees (by the way I am loving this ND brand of summer). About 6 pm, the wind picked up considerably and the skies went quickly dark indicating that a storm was a'coming. Everyone was shoo'd to their respective homes, and no sooner had I closed the door after my young'uns then it started. It wasn't the rain I expected though. It was hail. Great big one-inch pieces of hail. And it literally pounded out of the sky. I've never been one to be frightened by thunderstorms or hail or anything, but if I were, this sure would have been a doozy. Because I'm not though, and I'm intrigued by storms, I literally stood in awe at the storm door watching it pile up on the ground. It was wild, I tell you.
My kids were shouting all kinds of questions and comments to try and breach the roar of the hail hitting the trailer. They included the following:
Beya (crying): I'm SCARED mom!!!
Novan: Mom, I think it's going to break our house!
Iyov: What IS that mom?
Beya (hysterical): What's going on?? Just what kind of thunderstorm IS this??!!
Novan: But mom, it's summer! There's not supposed to be ice in summer!
Beya: I don't like this mom!!! Come hug me! No mom, stay away from the door. (including hysterical crying)
Keshet (obviously alarmed by the loud noise and yelling) crying.
Novan: Mom! Pick up Keshet! She doesn't like it!
Beya (crying): Moooom! Why does Jesus make thunderstorms like this??? I don't like it! It's too scary!
Woah. The last comment actually caught my attention enough to stop and pay attention to her hysterics. So I decided to take advantage of this teachable moment and began explaining that Jesus doesn't cause crazy weather. I explained how the earth needs to purge itself sometimes, because people don't take care of it and they do bad things that make the earth sad. The earth does this because of people; Jesus has nothing to do with it. But if we're scared, we can pray and Jesus will comfort us. So we did. And we sang a song.
After that, I went to the kitchen sink (the hail had finally abated by then) to wash something, and lo and behold there was a rainbow outside my window. I quickly lifted all the kids up to the window to see it, because it really was the most perfect rainbow I'd ever seen. And it was very barely a double rainbow with another arc forming above it.
I said, "Look guys! Jesus knew you were scared so he sent you a rainbow to tell you not to be scared!"
Impatiently I went outside while it was still raining to get an unblocked view:
It was so big, I couldn't capture the whole arc! After the rain mostly stopped, I called the kids out and they were enthralled. I have never seen a more beautiful rainbow, a perfect arc from horizon to horizon. Beya, as she was running out to get a good view with me said, with so much excitement she could barely contain herself, "A rainbow! A rainbow! Mom I LOVE Jesus!" because she felt SO special knowing that Jesus was thinking about her and had sent her a rainbow to calm her fears.
It was a very spiritual moment. I brought Keshet out to see her namesake, and we talked about the meaning of a rainbow again, and how an arc is a sign of a promise. God promises us that no matter how scary life can be, He will comfort us if we ask Him to. Rainbows will always happen after storms.
I think I cried. Yeah, I did, because it reminded me of why I gave Keshet her name.
And then the kids went to play in the literal river that our street had turned into. Let me tell you, that water was COLD! You can see the ice on the ground still in the picture. It was like we had seen the cycle of life's ups and downs in one day. There is possibly nothing more amazing to me on a daily basis than to see the repetition of cycles, how all things on a macro scale are repeated on a miniscule scale and everything in between. Whew! What an awesome day!
My kids were shouting all kinds of questions and comments to try and breach the roar of the hail hitting the trailer. They included the following:
Beya (crying): I'm SCARED mom!!!
Novan: Mom, I think it's going to break our house!
Iyov: What IS that mom?
Beya (hysterical): What's going on?? Just what kind of thunderstorm IS this??!!
Novan: But mom, it's summer! There's not supposed to be ice in summer!
Beya: I don't like this mom!!! Come hug me! No mom, stay away from the door. (including hysterical crying)
Keshet (obviously alarmed by the loud noise and yelling) crying.
Novan: Mom! Pick up Keshet! She doesn't like it!
Beya (crying): Moooom! Why does Jesus make thunderstorms like this??? I don't like it! It's too scary!
Woah. The last comment actually caught my attention enough to stop and pay attention to her hysterics. So I decided to take advantage of this teachable moment and began explaining that Jesus doesn't cause crazy weather. I explained how the earth needs to purge itself sometimes, because people don't take care of it and they do bad things that make the earth sad. The earth does this because of people; Jesus has nothing to do with it. But if we're scared, we can pray and Jesus will comfort us. So we did. And we sang a song.
After that, I went to the kitchen sink (the hail had finally abated by then) to wash something, and lo and behold there was a rainbow outside my window. I quickly lifted all the kids up to the window to see it, because it really was the most perfect rainbow I'd ever seen. And it was very barely a double rainbow with another arc forming above it.
I said, "Look guys! Jesus knew you were scared so he sent you a rainbow to tell you not to be scared!"
Impatiently I went outside while it was still raining to get an unblocked view:
It was so big, I couldn't capture the whole arc! After the rain mostly stopped, I called the kids out and they were enthralled. I have never seen a more beautiful rainbow, a perfect arc from horizon to horizon. Beya, as she was running out to get a good view with me said, with so much excitement she could barely contain herself, "A rainbow! A rainbow! Mom I LOVE Jesus!" because she felt SO special knowing that Jesus was thinking about her and had sent her a rainbow to calm her fears.
It was a very spiritual moment. I brought Keshet out to see her namesake, and we talked about the meaning of a rainbow again, and how an arc is a sign of a promise. God promises us that no matter how scary life can be, He will comfort us if we ask Him to. Rainbows will always happen after storms.
I think I cried. Yeah, I did, because it reminded me of why I gave Keshet her name.
And then the kids went to play in the literal river that our street had turned into. Let me tell you, that water was COLD! You can see the ice on the ground still in the picture. It was like we had seen the cycle of life's ups and downs in one day. There is possibly nothing more amazing to me on a daily basis than to see the repetition of cycles, how all things on a macro scale are repeated on a miniscule scale and everything in between. Whew! What an awesome day!
That's INSANE!!!!!!! Brooks has a friend that lives up there that commented about a hail storm the exact same time you did. Seriously, that is so random, but cool, but then again, on a trailer it WOULD be super loud and there's no place to go either.
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