You Go, God

Today we had a thunderstorm. No big deal, you say. Well, it is if you live in Southern California where thunderstorms are normally limited to late summer in what we call the monsoon season when the stifling heat mixes with the seasonal humidity and thunder clouds build tens of thousands of feet into the sky before dumping their contents on the parched desert landscape.

Today was different. This was a weather front moving through that had lightning and thunder and rain and the most stunningly beautiful patchwork quilt of clouds. I use the term quilt intentionally for most of the day there was the feeling of being under a quilt looking up.

All that weather brought to memory a wonderful family outing we had several years ago when all seven of us piled in the van and drove down the freeway to the reservation to watch the fireworks on July the Fourth. We parked beside the frontage road and climbed out. A few sat on the van and some of us had lawn chairs. Actually that only lasted a short while for in the light of the one street lamp one of the kids yelled and pointed out a snake that crawled out of the bushes and under the van. In a heartbeat, all the kids who had not been on the van were instantly atop it. They stayed there for the rest of the evening.

Then came the fireworks. Thrilling in their multi-colored display. But as we watched an amazing thing took place. In the distance behind the fireworks over the mountain range that rises to some 11,000 feet, the heat buildup produced clouds that were full of what we used to call heat lightning in the South mesmerizing and dazzling us with a resplendent display of God's creative handiwork and distracting us totally from the fireworks.

One member of the family said, “You go, God!” And He did.

Job 37:1 “At this also my heart trembles
and leaps out of its place.
Job 37:2 Keep listening to the thunder of his voice
and the rumbling that comes from his mouth.
Job 37:3 Under the whole heaven he lets it go,
and his lightning to the corners of the earth.
Job 37:4 After it his voice roars;
he thunders with his majestic voice,
and he does not restrain the lightnings when his voice is heard.
Job 37:5 God thunders wondrously with his voice;
he does great things that we cannot comprehend.