Tim Keel's Blog: Twisting the Oak

May 06, 2003

Twisting the Oak

I went up to Gladstone today to see the Langford family. Everybody seems okay and really grateful. The second floor of the house had all the windows blown out, chunks of roofing tiles were missing, and there may be some structural damage on the front of their house.

After lunch, Jim and I climbed onto the roof and worked for awhile covering exposed parts of the sub-roof with plastic sheeting. Their house is fairly isolated, or at least it used to be. They are back from the road, under the cover of trees even though they sit quite a ways up on a hill. Working high on their house, we were able to see the path of this particular funnel, which decimated the sub-division across the street (the one in the picture to the left) and the house just below them.

Eventually, we walked down the hill and visited with the family whose house was destroyed. I walked through their home, or what was left of it, stunned, trying to figure how it was possible that certain things were able to be in places where they just shouldn't be. There was no roof - just a big hole and lots of blue sky. I've never seen anything like it. Power.

I've mentioned before that I love weather, that I am fascinated by storms and rain and the mystery of it all - there's something transcendent there for me. And when I've said that I've meant transcendence in the realm of the beautiful. But today I witnessed it's darkest side, or maybe darkest is the wrong adjective. I guess it's kind of hard to describe. For the most part, weather is neat, fascinating, etc. Even when it's dangerous it's contained and sterile...made for television. But today I saw transcendent terrifying and arbitrary. I saw the reality of people utterly helpless before something awe-ful. I think trying to understand God in all his splendor and shrouded-ness is akin to witnessing the power of creation unleashed, albeit in some very small and limited way. And I perceive what the psalmist may have been describing when he wrote

The voice of the LORD is over the waters;
the God of glory thunders,
the LORD thunders over the mighty waters.
The voice of the LORD is powerful;
the voice of the LORD is majestic.
The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars;
the LORD breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.
He makes Lebanon skip like a calf,
Sirion like a young wild ox.
The voice of the LORD strikes
with flashes of lightning.
The voice of the LORD shakes the desert;
the LORD shakes the Desert of Kadesh.
The voice of the LORD twists the oaks
and strips the forests bare.
And in his temple all cry, "Glory!" Psalm 29:3-9