I LOVE Thunderstorms.

I love to watch thunderheads rise up and build on the horizon. I love to watch the color of the clouds change and darken. I love the flash of the lightning, the crackle of the thunder. The rumble of the storm that you can almost feel in your chest as much as you hear it in your ears. For me, any day with a thunderstorm is a good one.

I think part of the reason for that is because I spent the early years of my life living in a trailer house in Southern Oklahoma, a state also known as tornado alley. So, growing up in that trailer house, when the thunder came, excitement came with it.

Sometimes it was just silly excitement, like when our cat would get stranded on the roof because the wind would blow the wrong direction against the tree that she climbed to get up there, and then she couldn't reach the branches to get down.

And sometimes, when the clouds were the wrong color, and coming from the wrong direction, we would have an entirely different kind of excitement.

My parents would hustle us into our car and drive like crazy to somewhere with a storm shelter or a basement. And then after we got there, all the other trailer house kids who showed up would play inside and get to stay up way past bed time and all the adults would stand on the porch or out in the yard staring at the clouds and debating back and forth about if the storm was building or passing, coming or going.

I remember as a kid loving every minute of those storms. I even have a vague memory of hearing a sound like a freight train as we all huddled in a neighbor’s cellar while a tornado went over the top of us.

And still now, years later and all grown up, a flash of lightning followed by the sound of thunder brings a thrill to my soul.

I have learned over the years that storms are not always safe, and when the thunder comes, everything isn’t always OK when it leaves, but still, I love thunderstorms. And these days I think the reason is because the thing they most remind me of is POWER.

In the Bible, there is a book called the Book of Job. It’s about a man named Job who loses everything, and then complains bitterly and extensively to God about it. But then in the last few chapters, as he's finishing his complaint, a storm begins to build on the horizon. And finally, God Himself shows up and speaks to Job in the midst of the the roaring thunder. As the storm is roaring, the Book of Job. Chapter 38 says:

Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm.

He said:

“Who is this that darkens my counsel

with words without knowledge?

Brace yourself like a man;

I will question you,

and you shall answer me.

“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?

Tell me, if you understand.

Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!

Who stretched a measuring line across it?

On what were its footings set,

or who laid its cornerstone—

while the morning stars sang together

and all the angels shouted for joy?

That feeling right there--the power and the majesty and the glory and the wonder--that is why I love the thunder. It reminds me who I’m not, and it reminds me who God is.

If you feel strong and in control of your life today, I hope that the next time that the thunder rolls you remember that you aren’t. I hope that you remember instead that it is only God who is strong, and His love for you is wild.

Do the wise thing, ladies and gentlemen. Acknowledge God for everything that He is today, and trust Him for everything you're not.