Summertime, and the livin’ is, um, humid (at least here in Virginia). More precisely, per the common complaint, hot and humid. And these weather conditions give rise to the most spectacular thunder and lightning storms. The latest such meteorological phenomenon produced seriously impressive crashes of thunder over my office, some feeling almost powerful enough to make the building shudder. I decided to look up a reasonable definition of this noisy storm component. What I found is this: the air temperature within a lightning channel can soar up to 50,000oF – 5 times hotter than the sun! Following the strike, the super-heated air cools. The sudden expansion and contraction of air is what produces the ‘boom’ referred to as thunder. I find these power-filled summer weather events kind of thrilling (with sympathies to the poor, cowering dogs out there, of course).
There is this great passage of Scripture in Job 37, NLT, where Job’s friend, Elihu, declares: “Who can understand the spreading of the clouds and the thunder that rolls forth from heaven? See how he spreads the lightning around him and how it lights up the depths of the sea. . . . He fills his hand with lightning bolts and hurls each at its target. The thunder announces his presence; the storm announces his indignant anger.” It’s also where God responds to Job’s complaining (chapters 38-41 with: “Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorant words? Brace yourself like a man, because I have questions for you . . . Who created a channel for the torrents of rain? Who laid out the path for the lightning?” Of course, God knew, because He was the answer to those and many, many other questions He put to Job. The mighty power evidenced in the universe, completely under God’s mightier control!
And, to think that this same, mighty God is the unchanged and unchanging and unchangeable God of our Salvation, the Lover of our Souls, the One Who loves us with an everlasting love! Suddenly I feel diminished, not as in shame or in mockery, but diminished as in an infant or very small child, helpless and needing constant, tender loving care – and finding it, in Him! Didn’t Jesus remark, concerning the people of Jerusalem, that he had earnestly desired to shelter them under his wings, like a hen with her chicks? And me, too? And you? PD
