Lightening Struck!

Several years ago our home was struck by lightening. I was inside with my daughter, Precious. The lightening came through the front picture window and struck the living room sofa. Earlier we had left church, went to a restaurant and my husband stayed behind to watch the game on the television there, while Precious and I came on home.

We were at home maybe twenty to thirty minutes, we had enough time to put on a pair of shorts, t-shirt but no shoes, when I heard a loud pop come from the living room. I ran to see what had happened and saw the couch was on fire. Precious had gotten water and was throwing it on the sofa which was causing the smoke to fill the room. I ran to the kitchen to get some flour or something dry to throw on it, the smoke began to billow. Precious ran across the street to a neighbors and yelled for the neighbor to come help, I was still in the house, when I realized it was no use, I was beginning to inhale too much smoke, so I ran outside to find our neighbor with a garden hose trying to put out the flames through the living room window.

Needless to say we could not save the house, it went up so quickly and by the time the fire department got there it was too late. Everything we owned was in that house. I didn’t have a pair of shoes, a toothbrush or even a change of clothes. The most devastating thing of all was the family pictures that burned. They were irreplaceable.

At this time we were youth pastors of a small church in town so most of the town knew us. News spread quickly, we had several churches that banned together and had a huge garage sale and fundraiser at the school cafeteria. Three people walked up to us and handed us keys to homes that were vacant. We were given the choice of moving into any of them. By the time my husband got there half the town had already shown up. I was crying and a Pastor friend came to me and told me God had a plan, not to worry.

Some people would say why did God allow that to happen? If there were a God, why do bad things happen for no explainable reason. In the movie, “Love Comes Softly,” there is a guy who says, “when I am with my daughter and she falls and hurts herself, I don’t allow it to happen, but I am there to pick her up, she knows her father’s unconditional love for her and she knows I will be right beside her in the good times and the bad, the same way our heavenly Father picks us up and carries us when things happen in our lives beyond our control.”

I have learned through the years that God has carried me so many times and I am sure He will carry me in the future. I am more at peace now than I ever have been, because I know my job is to trust and to leave the details to Him.