~STAYING STRONG IN OKLAHOMA~

First of all I want to thank all of you who have taken the time to call, email and comment regarding the tornadoes that tore thru Oklahoma on Sunday and Monday.  Small towns and cities across our state have been pummeled to the ground and the loss is beyond devastating.  Your continued prayers for Oklahoma are greatly appreciated and mean more than my collective thoughts can convey.

At present the rains are coming down making rescue and recovery all the more challenging.  As difficult as it is to watch I can't pull myself away from the non-stop coverage on the News.  Seeing our Oklahoma land ripped up only twenty miles from us and knowing people have died is beyond overwhelming.  I watched just this morning as an elderly woman shared how thankful she was to be alive.  It was then her little doggie, no-doubt her trusted companion, crawled out from beneath the rubble.  She was sure he had perished...a precious Schnauzer unbelievably survived her entire home being flattened.  This my friends was a total God-thing.  We are praying for more wonderful stories like this one.

As a result of all of the devastation I'm reminded again at how fragile life is.  How in an instant everything known and loved to us can be gone or changed in the blink of an eye.  I'm beyond grateful our Edmond home missed being hit on Sunday.  But that gratefulness doesn't even compare to how thankful I am that our son and his family, by the grace of God, missed getting any damage from the tornado that tore through Moore yesterday afternoon.  My Miss K attends fourth grade at a local school and her elementary school isn't too terribly far from the two completely destroyed.   I'm overjoyed at her and her family's safety~but my heart is broken over the thought of those who lost their lives.

I do not presume to understand why God allows all He does.  I only know that it is in times like these we are all forced to confront the fragility of life.  What seemed so important a couple of days ago doesn't even register upon our hearts or in our minds today.  Just maybe, just maybe good things will come our way as a result.

One of my beautiful mother's favorite songs came to my mind this morning...  Written my Mosie Lister many years ago, it says what I cannot...

TILL THE STORM PASSES BY

"In the dark of the midnight have I oft hid my face,
While the storm howls above me, and there's no hiding place.
'Mid the crash of the thunder, Precious Lord, hear my cry,
Keep me safe till the storm passes by.

Till the storm passes over, till the thunder sounds no more,
Till the clouds roll forever from the sky;
Hold me fast, let me stand in the hollow of Thy hand,
Keep me safe till the storm passes by.

Many times Satan whispered, "There is no need to try,
For there's no end of sorrow, there's no hope by and by"
But I know Thou art with me, and tomorrow I'll rise
Where the storms never darken the skies.

Till the storm passes over, till the thunder sounds no more,
Till the clouds roll forever from the sky;
Hold me fast, let me stand in the hollow of Thy hand,
Keep me safe till the storm passes by.

When the long night has ended and the storms come no more,
Let me stand in Thy presence on the bright peaceful shore;
In that land where the tempest, never comes, Lord, may I
Dwell with Thee when the storm passes by.

Till the storm passes over, till the thunder sounds no more,
Till the clouds roll forever from the sky;
Hold me fast, let me stand in the hollow of Thy hand,
Keep me safe till the storm passes by."  

Love to you...