Missionaries, Tornadoes and the Book of Job

Each year we host the class of missionaries-in-training, both singles and families, from The Master's Mission (http://www.mastersmission.org) located near Robbinsville, NC for an overnight before they travel to the nearby Creation Museum. (This year our daughter is among them so it was a special treat to have her here.)

The clouds have not been as beautiful the last few days.

The 24 of us were eating dinner last night as the skies grew darker and progressively more ominous. We can only see about 1/2 mile to our West, so storms can come in without much warning if we aren't aware. Somehow we missed the tornado warning, but knew there was a storm coming, and that it was the same line that had caused the tornado in Joplin MO the day before. G was the first to hear the siren go off in the community to our NW. We often don't hear it from our distance, but were thankful for the extra minutes it gave us to move everyone inside and the children away from the windows.
Two years ago we had a tornado pass very near us a few hours before TMMers arrived and we stood at the top of the cellar stairs for 5 minutes while we were engulfed in the equivalent of a giant car wash in a wind tunnel. Not fun. Earlier this spring I accidentally drove with my children into the edges of a cell as I entered town--far scarier than being in a house during one. Last night's brush was the mildest, but exciting enough for me.

The largest hail I could pick up w/o getting pelted.

I am a native Oregonian. I grew up in the temperate Willamette Valley where the things we called "storms" should probably be redefined and assigned a new name, because they are so trivial in comparison to these that drive across and tear up the Midwest. Since growing up and living in a few parts of the country, I have experienced a bit more 'serious weather' since my childhood. I have been through four hurricanes (5 if you count the one that traveled North through Indiana a few years ago and removed many of our roof shingles), 2 very mild earthquakes (is that weather?) and 3 episodes of 'tornadic activity', as well as flooding and snowstorms.

The truth is this: tornadoes scare me. 

Which does not mean much; it's just the way it is. I continue to work through it, and for now I manage by getting as ready for the 'worst' as I can; I make sure my people are ready and where they should be, collect the keys, IDs, shoes, flashlights, etc. and also by remembering the words of Stonewall Jackson: "I am as safe on the battlefield as I am in my bed." (Which could be shortened to "God is in complete control" or "Trust in the Lord" but I guess I find Stonewall's version comforting because it includes the word 'safe'. :)
It is a true and secure sentiment to hunker down with while riding out a storm, but I am no Pollyanna. I am aware that throughout the course of history and across the globe He has been in control since the creation and simultaneous destruction of every perfect thing and He frequently allows Hell apparent victories which, although they will be dwarfed and silenced in the end, in the meantime continue to pound furiously and viciously on this magnificent planet and on it's people who bear some of the image of their Creator; the One the devil hates.

I am convinced that tornadoes are from Hell.

(Not my photo. iWitness User: Chelle Crocker. 

A car wrapped around a tree in Joplin, MO.)

We do not have tv, in the sense that we do not have cable or satellite for receiving programming. And I think this may be the first time I have found myself wishing we did, as so many communities have been hit hard by so many destructions and I am not in the loop. Tonight was the first time I had opportunity to check online about Joplin MO, and just like Tuscaloosa AL the footage is shocking. It's unfathomable, really. I also checked some videos on YouTube. There was one I will never forget.
The first is almost entirely pitch black throughout the 5 minute recording and was filmed by phone as the tornado hit a gas station and the people taking refuge there piled into the walk-in cooler as the storm destroyed everything around it. It is the stuff of nightmares. When it is finally over, they are all alive. In the second the young man filming (whose mother called his cell and demanded he get off the road and take cover, thereby saving his life) returns to the 'gas station'. Only the hand of God spared these people.  But be warned if you decide to 'view' it that the terror recorded on the first video is like nothing I have ever heard, and like nothing I ever want to hear again. But the most amazing thing to me, over the screaming and the crying, is the voice of one woman crying out to Jesus throughout the ordeal.  It reminded me of the saying:

There are No Atheists in Foxholes (and probably not in tornadoes either).

I've never been in a foxhole, so I can't say from personal experience, but these people believed they were going to die yesterday, and at that very moment over one hundred twenty-four (and counting) of their friends and neighbors actually did. I am so curious about this woman. Does she walk with the Lord? Did she grow up in a church culture or a Christian home? Or was she an atheist? How is she? How is her family?

There is no question that we are all approaching death. And when it is my turn--however it may come--I hope that like this woman I meet it in submission and love and thankfulness to my Lord. (Yes. She thanks God at one point, clearly not for the tornado, but out of a submitted heart I believe, knowing that He is mindful of her.) 

In the Book of Job, chapter one, much like many residents of Joblin MO yesterday, this righteous man was stripped of everything he had and everyone he loved by the devil himself; with God's consent. And his words were recorded as an example for everyone who would seek to honor the Lord if and when they face a time of devastation:

 He said,"Naked I came from my mother's womb,

         And naked I shall return there 

         The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away.

         Blessed be the name of the LORD."

 Through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God.

Job18-22