God's Voice Thunders in Marvelous Ways

Last night I got home late and a cool breeze was drifting around me. The sky was full of thick clouds, but I couldn't tell how dark they were, since it was already pitch black outside.

A little later I was talking with my mother, when lightening flashed really bright through the windows and less than a second later a deafening clap of thunder reached our ears. I jumped, and listened as it continued slowly, extremely loud at first, then turning to a rumble.

"It's right over us!"

I dashed outside, and stood watching the dark clouds. Soon, after a few flashes, I figured out the general area of the storm. It was to the North, and the wind was blowing from the South.

Another blinding shocked my eyes, as the lightening leapt from cloud to cloud in a zig-zag. Another ear-deafening boom, sounding like an orchestra entirely made up of timpani. The outside light turned on right above me, and I turned to the three heads of my sisters. "Turn off that light! How are you supposed to see the lightening with the light on?" They laughed at me and turned it off, running out beside me onto the patio. "It's right above our house, right out there." I pointed North.

We heard a weird, eerie snap. Lightening again flashed, but it was so close and so bright I could barely see the skinny outline of it, and could only tell the shape of it by the sparkling gold colors my eyes registered. Immediately the clap of the air back together brought a thunderous sound, and we all questioned each other, "Did you hear that snap right before the lightening?"

Our Dad came outside, and we all watched smaller lightening flash from farther away. We told him about the snap. It was dark, cool, and a tension in the air excited us. At least, it excited me; I love thunderstorms.

A loud snap crackled just above our heads, lightening streaked the clouds directly above our house at the same time, and a second later the booming crash of thunder was heard, so loud that I gasped and covered my ears, but then grabbed Kate's arm excitedly. That was the loudest and the closest lightening and thunderstorm we've had in a long time. The snap was the most interesting, it came before each lightening split the sky, as if the electric tension in the air couldn't take it anymore and the air would 'snap', allowing the lightening to rush through.

Other lightening and thunder continued, but not as close or as loud. I still ran out onto the wet grass (Faith failed to tell me that was the spot where she had the sprinkler running all afternoon) and danced around, happy at the thought that I saw and heard the most amazing things in a long time. And it's not anything completely different either, but thunderstorms grab my attention and my curiosity, and the power displayed by God in them is wonderful to behold.

The South wind grew stronger, and pushed the clouds further North. The moon began to poke her head out from a long, straight cloud. Emily quoted Job, and I was looking it up today, and found this (which seemed to apply exactly to us who were sweltering under a south wind, watching a storm come from the north) from Job 37:2-5,15-24:

2 Listen! Listen to the roar of his voice, to the rumbling that comes from his mouth.

3 He unleashes his lightning beneath the whole heaven and sends it to the ends of the earth.

4 After that comes the sound of his roar; he thunders with his majestic voice. When his voice resounds, he holds nothing back.

5 God's voice thunders in marvelous ways; he does great things beyond our understanding. .....

15 Do you know how God controls the clouds and makes his lightning flash?

16 Do you know how the clouds hang poised, those wonders of him who is perfect in knowledge?

17 You who swelter in your clothes when the land lies hushed under the south wind,

18 can you join him in spreading out the skies, hard as a mirror of cast bronze?

19 "Tell us what we should say to him; we cannot draw up our case because of our darkness.

20 Should he be told that I want to speak? Would any man ask to be swallowed up?

21 Now no one can look at the sun, bright as it is in the skies after the wind has swept them clean.

22 Out of the north he comes in golden splendor; God comes in awesome majesty.

23 The Almighty is beyond our reach and exalted in power; in his justice and great righteousness, he does not oppress.

24 Therefore, men revere him, for does he not have regard for all the wise in heart?