Saturday, June 17, 2006

man vs. God


Now, you might think this is going to be some philosophical thesis worthy of Oxford, Cambridge, or maybe Dallas Theological Seminary. It isn't. Coming home today from Border's Bookstore I had a hard time keeping my eyes on the road. This was because God put on a great fireworks show tonight. Granted, it wasn't as great as some I have seen, but nonetheless, it was spectacular. I remember the best one I've had the privilege to see. It was back home in Norfolk. Now every year, on the 3d of July, there is a HUGE fireworks display. Called "Big, Bang, Boom", it normally costs a couple of hundred thousand dollars to set up. According to a couple of newspapers, it is one of the biggest, best shows in the States. Now, my parent's house at the time was 1/2 a mile from the lake that the show took place at. B/c of that, our view was perfect. We could stay home, not battle the crowds or try to find parking spaces...grill out, whatever. God decided to see if the team that put it on could match His bag of tricks. Just about 10 minutes after the show started, a rather large thunderstorm rolled in. The lake was to our south, the storm to the north. At first, the show was winning. Lots of cool colors, loud bangs, a couple of car alarms going off...great show. That didn't last too long. Pretty soon the sky to the north was lit up almost continuously with huge peals of sheet lightning. Interspersed with that like a counterpoint of high-hats was fork lightning. Sky to ground, cloud to cloud, ground to sky, east to west, north to south. That lightning came fast, loud, hot and heavy. To a person, my family and friends turned to the storm and just watched it exclusively. A couple of us climbed onto our roof to get an even better view. About an hour later, both light shows started to wind down until there was nothing left but the light hint of sulfer in the air (curtesy of the fireworks). In my not so humble opinion, there is nothing better than a good lightning storm. Unless it is a good lightning storm out in the mountains.

4 comments:

Alyssa Spring Corley said...

I love lightening storms. I never understood why people are scared of thunder...you know...the classic tv scene of a child crying and hiding behind is mother because of the storm outside. I know it COULD be dangerous..but gosh, getting in your car is dangerous!!!

soulreavers said...

I used to be one of those kids. I hated lightning, and all because of my mother. Whenever it would start to thunder out in Caborachi, she would say in this basso profundo voice, "It's gonna rain!!" Which at one point she said was what thunder and lightning were telling us. For some reason, that scared the living bejeezus out of me. And as you know Alyssa, the storms can be great out there. Needless to say, it was several years before I was able to enjoy them the way I do now.

thebarefootpoet said...

I thought storms were cool, then in about 2nd grade I saw a tornado about 2 miles from my house. I freaked out at dark clouds for several years after. Then I recovered, and as you both mentioned, now enjoy those amazing shows. What an amazing picture! Is that real or created?

soulreavers said...

real. It was taken a couple of years ago when one of the shuttle missions got scrubbed due to a storm rolling through. The shuttle was still at the gantry, and somebody got lucky.