Post-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving Post

My First Wife and I went to Amarillo, Texas, for the Thanksgiving Weekend. We returned to Kansas on Sunday.

You know, Sunday of the Storms on the Plains…

From Perry, Oklahoma to Pancake Flats, Kansas, (I-35) we endured four hours of rain, wind, hail. Violent wind, swirling rain, bullets of hail; black clouds, green clouds, lightning, horizontal rain… Unbeknownst to us, snow was paralyzing eastern Colorado and western Kansas. Nebraska, too. (Sorry about the “N” word.) And Iowa. And the Dakotas.

I think every county along the way was different. We saw some of the most beautiful multi-colored clouds I’ve ever looked at. We saw some of the most awful, terrible clouds ever scooped together. In one stretch the cloud was so huge, thick and black we couldn’t see anything at all.

During a break in the rain, we saw the sun’s mid-afternoon rays slipping between clouds down onto the Flint Hills. And to our right, an enormous white Cumulus cloud dominated the north and east of us. Sunlight reflected off that cloud, and so rays from two directions intersected in front of us. Sunrays shining in the “wrong” direction? Priceless.

Twice, we saw brilliant rainbows and drove right through the vivid ends of them. Unfortunately, you can’t see the other side of them, no matter how fast you turn around to look. Rainbows that close? Speechless.

It was an afternoon I’ll never forget. The moment-by-moment changes; the beasts and the beauty of nature. I didn’t know it at the time—the black cloud time—but a tornado was ripping along close behind us.

When we finally arrived home and pulled under our carport, we had to wait three minutes for the hail to stop. Inside, the Big City TV stations were all a-jabber about weather incidents still madly under way. My First Wife hugged me and called me ”…a wonderful driver.”

The two of us had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend, and this terrible and beautiful Sunday afternoon was all part of it. We are particularly thankful that The Lord watched over us and protected us—and all those around us—while we careened through His majestic handiwork.

“…I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have entrusted to him for that day…” The Apostle Paul, 2 Timothy 1:12