While stormy weather has been mostly missing this summer in northeast Iowa, we have been able to have enough rain events to give the crops enough water to grow on our farm and so far they are looking to be doing well. Of course no one knows for sure until it is harvested. God continues to have blessings for His people. And we are thankful!
Last Thursday evening, we were warned to be aware of possible late evening storms. Since I was still having problems going up and down stairs, I was sleeping on the first floor level of our home rather than trying to make it up to our bedroom. The temporary bed is placed so that the head of the bed is in a small alcove that has windows on three sides. That has benefits--I see the moon at night and the fireflies. I can hear the night time calls of the tree frogs for a mate to meet at our water lily barrels. I get to see the morning star and the sun dimly coming up through the haze of northern fires. And then at the first peek of dawn, when it is still pretty dark, the birds start to sing their good morning songs. I have enjoyed my early wakeup call! Yes, I have enjoyed this new experience. God has blessings for us to see and for us to hear if we keep our eyes and ears open. Blessings despite troublesome reasons,
The warning of evening and night time storms sent us to bed with our phones on so that we could be alerted if there was a strong storm coming. One of my fears is of night time tornados. Because of the pain in my knees and hip, I got to sleep very late, listening to the sound of rain and thunder and seeing lots of flashes. It reminded me of the Sabbath School song I used to sing with the children--"The raindrops fall with flashes and booms, flashes and booms, flashes and booms--showing God's great love!" At last, I was finally asleep and there was no more storm--temporarily! Protected and safe in God's care.
Suddenly, around 3:15am, now early Friday morning, I woke up to bright lights!!! Not from lightning or an early sunrise. It was in the house and rather startling. Then I could hear my husband coming downstairs and with a less than happy attitude. I managed to get my eyes open in time to witness him hurrying through the dining room into the kitchen and then heard him going down to the basement. I am pretty sure that he was in a great hurry after seeing what he wasn't wearing! All I got from him was something about an EMERGENCY! Since I was now almost awake, I could see and hear that there were more storms in the area. I decided to do what we love to use our smart phones for and check the current radar to see where the storm was located--was it headed our direction?
BUT!!!!! My phone suddenly decided that there was an emergency and decided that it needed to call 911 .
Suddenly I was hearing the sound of a loud emergency signal coming from my phone. In my half awakeness, I couldn't figure out what was happening. I managed to stop the call very quickly--but not fast enough! Of course I got a call back from the emergency dispatcher! I had to embarrassingly say that there was NO Emergency! Though there sort of was! Of course I was asked to confirm my name and address! Ugh!! Even now I am not sure that I gave them my correct address. My brain was still in sleep mode and not truly awake. How quick they were to call! But as quick as the responder was, we can be assured that God has responders that are even faster! Angels are ready to help instantaneously! How wonderful! Won’t it be fun to learn how they can do that for us?
There was not much I could do to help my husband in his emergency and not so much that even he could do. Somehow the faucet in our upstairs bathroom sprung a leak and was spewing hot water everywhere. And our house still has a few things wrong with it from things not being constructed right years ago. So there were no water shut offs on the second floor. Instead they were located in the basement. We know that we should have fixed this sin of construction and the sin of procrastination long ago. But we didn't. Perhaps we are kind of like the people left outside of Noah's Ark. They procrastinated too long to make things right and experienced the horror of flooding water.
There were several trips made to the basement, up and down two flights of stairs before the water finally stopped spraying and was shut off properly. By that time, there was water everywhere it shouldn't be! The water on the second story floor found its way to the bathroom below on the first floor and from there into the basement. The sound of water raining and falling inside the house is never a good sound. It is not the song of "The rain drops fall with a pitter pitter pat......showing God's great love."
The drips of water falling into our first floor bathroom from the ceiling were very much no longer clear water. They had an ugly red/rusty look. And there was no way to stop them until they stopped!!! And with no way to direct them to where we might want. The drips went wherever they pleased--on everything that was out--rugs, Kleenex, tissue paper, towels, papers, the floor, the shower curtain, to name just a few! We had a big clean up job ahead of us --when everything is properly dry. It is not fun to need to use the bathroom and have rusty rain fall on you!
We will clean, we will fix things properly! How much better to not make mistakes in the first place. Then, we don't have to clean up our mistakes. We don't have to make repairs to right the wrongs. We don't have to clean up a mess if we don't make a mess in the first place.
Trust God to solve our personal emergencies. Let's strive for No fixes of emergencies!
