We had tornado weather this weekend here in the greater Tulsa area. It was quite the storm, leaving the area without electricity for days to come, with quite a bit of downed trees and limbs.
Oddly, everyone I talked to said they had heard nothing about when the electricity would be fixed, including being given no answer when calling the electric company. The radio itself gave zero info about it, despite giving the weather forecast, while much of the city and suburbs remained without electricity.
I woke up I don’t know maybe 2 am to the sound of a very strong wind and the sound of a train. Now they say a tornado sounds like a train, so I immediately thought of a tornado, especially when I stepped outside and saw how violent the winds were, though the train sound went down like it was a tornado siren turning off, so that sound might have been the siren itself.
Sunday was penitential not having electricity for lights, cooking, AC, or charging our phones, our place getting a bit muggy and unpleasant. My 88 year old mom called us from her cell phone she only uses for emergencies, not wanting to stay home alone without electricity or her land line phone working, so she came over and sat with us for company looking at the dim interior of our home, nonetheless comforted.
The flowers we planted in flower pots by our front door were torn apart. Leaves and branches were scattered all around.
This was a reminder
of the fragility of this life. That we are at the mercy of Mother Nature, and of God. That around every corner is another cross to endure, if endured rightly helping to bring us to heaven, or a higher place in heaven. I think by God’s grace we are enduring this fairly well, except to be reminded how much of an attachment I have for AC. Just imagine this has happened in August.
When I stepped out my door that night with the curiosity of a child, to, in retrospect, foolishly look up at the night sky for a sign of a twister, there was a terrible thunder clap from the sky just overhead, as if God Himself was correcting me to be more careful. It put the fear of God into me as I stepped back inside heading back to bed, remembering in that moment something from a talk by Fr. Ripperger about the Particular Judgment. When a soul is damned, at the moment of that judgment and sentencing, a thunder bolt is heard. Prayers none of us hear that for ourselves.
Nature like God is both beautiful and giving, and in contrast also punishing and destructive, when it needs to be according to its design, like when God needs to be, either supernaturally or by means of Nature itself.
Oklahoma being the most active part of the world for tornadoes, we are ourselves reminded of that reality this time of year. People’s homes are destroyed, their lives turned upside down, one man died yesterday (RIP) from a tree crashing into his house during the storm. All from a change in temperature and atmospheric pressure resulting in high winds and funnel clouds.
And the mighty hand of God.