October 21 – “Mystery solved”

A crash.  Well that was a rather calamitous wake up call.  4:30 a.m.  No question about it … a crash.  Oh, I don’t mean the very loud crack of thunder.  That sound is familiar, even comforting.  But it was followed almost immediately by a nasty, scraping, explosive, quite unfamiliar sound. 

Chris and I both sat up with a start.  I got out of bed and did a bit of recognizance, but I figured it was either the door of the shed clattering or maybe a tree branch falling on its roof.  The shed is located just outside our bedroom.  I went back to bed, but alas, sleep eluded me.  I got up again, grabbed a flashlight, and this time went out into the back yard to more closely investigate.  Absolutely nothing looked out of the ordinary.  No downed tree branches.  Shed door secure.  I even went up on the deck and checked out the roof.  All seemed well.  I continued on with my morning routine. 

Sometime later, when Chris got up for the day, she began with the same curiosity I had.  She peered out the bathroom window.  Nothing.  On a whim she walked into our bedroom and glanced out that window.  And what to her wondering eyes should appear?  Not a sleigh full of toys.  A little too early for that.  Not an errant opossum or a stray kitten.  Not unusual enough for our lifestyle.  But there in living color was the source of our consternation, the purveyor of early morning sound waves, the culprit that destroyed our pleasant slumber.  There was … (drumroll here) … the big umbrella that usually lives in the back yard providing shade to our patio furniture.  In the midst of the storm, no doubt assisted in its journey by the flashes of light from the thunderous lightning previously mentioned, the opened umbrella had made its way over the shed, over the fence, and into the neighbor’s front yard.  Fortunately, that’s as far as the tricky winds of the morning saw fit to carry it, for naught but one palm tree and empty spaces stood in its path. 

But for us … mystery solved.

1 John 4:10 says, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

Father, thank you for protection from storms … of all kinds.  Amen.