In the Whirlwind and Storm is His Way

I was going through some old pictures from my computer back home and came across some photos I took before our family reunion last year. There was a really fierce storm rolling through, and I took off into the fields to try to catch some shots before the deluge broke loose.

The experience was indescribable. I was standing in tall grasses, my hair and clothes tugged on by the same gusts that forced my own breath back into my lungs.  The wide plains around me rose up to meet the torrential expanse which was rolling in. The clouds were varying shades of charcoal and built up as they rolled in like the crest of a crashing tide.

As I was standing there, awestruck in the face of the sublime beauty of that terrifying storm, our horses came to nuzzle the strange black box I held in my hand with their velvety mouths. When they were sure that my camera was inedible, they turned to watch the storm with me before casually loping back towards the barn. Not long after, I returned to the barn as well at the beckoning of my worried mother, the first drops of rain striking my face as I turned to look back at the approaching waves of mist.

While I was standing there with the horses, I was reminded of an old Rich Mullins song in which he sings, "I hear the thunder in the sky; I see the sky about to rain; and I hear creation calling out Your Name."

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made. --- Romans 1:20  

All around me in the liquid grasses, in the dark coming clouds, and in the calm faces of my equine companions I heard the echoes of God's whispers and saw the smallest fraction of His awesome and holy power.  I was standing in the middle of open prairie plains, completely lighting-prone, and my upturned face was radiant with the joy of worship. How awesome is our God? It was probably one of the most surreal and sublime experiences of my life, and the pictures hardly do it justice.

In whirlwind and storm is His way, and clouds are the dust beneath His feet. ---Nahum 1:3