As we left for dinner one evening
while on vacation, we heard rumbles of thunder and noticed encroaching dark
clouds. We put our efforts in high gear to reach the car before the storm, and a
mile or so down the road after we left, the threatening clouds delivered on
their promise of rain.
About then, three things happened
almost simultaneously.
1. My phone rang in my purse on
the car floor, and I glanced down.
2. A fireball hit beside the car.
3. A tremendous explosion sounded over
our car.
In my confusion about what was
happening, I tried to connect the ringing phone to the explosion. It took me a moment
to realize it was thunder. I didn’t see the fireball because I had looked down
at my phone, but Jerry did. When I researched, I found fireball lightning is a
thing. Actually, some think it is as common as the jagged form we usually
associate with lightning. Theories abound as to why lightning takes that shape.
Jerry said it was about as big as a basketball but radiated outward.
I’m being analytical about this now,
but at the time I was shaking from the explosion. It was unlike any thunder I’ve
ever heard. And we were that close, only feet away, from the lightning.
As a character on an old sitcom
used to say, “It makes you think.”
Who knows how often we are that
close to peril, but God in his mercy and grace spares us for his purposes.
But in reference to the sitcom
character’s words, the time to start thinking about those situations is not
when they happen, but now, because we’re all going to face stuff at one time or
another.
“Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is
my fortress, I will not be shaken” (Psalm 62:6). The word shaken in the
original language means slip, totter, or fall. We need to live in such a way
that though we may shake, we will not fall, and the way we do that is through trusting
in the Lord, studying His word, praying, and living in fellowship with other
Christians who keep us accountable.
The fact is sometimes the
fireball does hit us. When it does, it’s good to remember our God will never
leave us or forsake us. Just as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego walked around
in the fire, there was also another who looked like “a son of the gods.” And
they came away from that time without even the smell of fire on them. (Daniel
3).
If you’re trembling right now from
a near miss or a direct hit, know God is with you. He can keep you from
falling. As the apostle Paul said, God’s “strength is perfected in weakness.”
“Now unto him that is able to
keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his
glory with exceeding joy” (Jude 24).
When the storm rolls in, the
lightning may hit close, but He’s even closer.