My First Tornado Survival

 It is odd when you are in the throes of possible disaster.  The mind can play tricks.  When the siren went off in my city, I took it seriously but not too seriously.  Why was that?  They don't do those except as a warning.  

I did take cover, I did believe it was possible, but it was as if it was surreal.  It was as if it was not really happening.  I saw the wind. I heard the roar. I saw the deluge of rain; however, I stayed on the phone with the Direct TV guy because I was trying to upgrade my plan so I could actually see my local weather.  

I can get it on my iPhone



, but I wanted to see this radar on my TV.  The entire few seconds that the tornado was actually over my head, I was talking with him about the upgrade hunkered down in my hall bathroom.  I made him nervous.  I told him the siren was going off.  He said, "I hear it.  Mrs. Johns, you are making me nervous."  I said, "My name is Paula, pray for me."  I know he did, because I was in such denial of what I was hearing and had just seen happening from my window before I went into the bathroom that I was not able to say one word of prayer. 

I think of prayer this way.  My life is a prayer. I kneel, yes, regularly, but sometimes the words are not spoken, it is just an understanding between me and the Holy Spirit.  Today, it was one of those times.

There are people in my neighborhood today who had huge hunks of roof removed from the tops of their homes, on my street.  There are neighbors who had giant oaks and pine trees splintered into a kindling. This focused whirl of winds tore through my neighborhood and made believers of us that there is a power that is unstoppable, uncontrollable and formidable.  Makes one think.

I can't say that God protected me above anyone else, although my house was not damaged, and I am thankful, when a neighbor is hit, I am hit, even if I do not know them.  It is a community I live in. People that share the same space, people that share the same identity of a particular area.  We are communal. Whatever happens to them, happens to me. 

That is the same as it is in the church.  We are part of a living organism.  What happens to one, happens to all of us. This experience of going through this disaster has brought this to the forefront of my mind.  We are one.  No matter the differences, we are one.

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