After The Storm, Into God’s Light
Skies black as night,
Clouds rolled angry across the darkened sky.
Trees bent as if in submission to an unseen wind.
Hail the size of half dollars,
Echoed across the tin siding of our plant.
We all looked out closed doors,
At the madness of the afternoon as the rain poured in a powerful slant.
Thirty minutes of blackness,
Thirty minutes of tempest and unrelenting wind.
Then as quick as it started it did end.
A calm as sudden as the storm softly came.
Painting colors much like ‘Josephs’ coat of many colors,
As the madness of afore became sane.
God had quickly transformed the darkness
And with brush in hand painted a beautiful and most pleasing sky.
I pondered this moment as I watched
The young deer from the nearby woods come out to graze.
They were but mere shadows amidst the painted sky,
And the fog which arose in a gentle misty haze.
The storm was over,
The darkness had been cast away.
Deep down my heart cried soft tears
As I realized that the Lord God shall never cease to amaze.
Life is good if we seek not the darkness,
But just His Glory and Light.
So sleep now in peace shall I this very night.
J. Allen Wilson © 6/13/2013
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It is quite ironic, but I happened on a picture that I didn't know I scanned and forgot that I took yesterday. My old color Kodak combined with age has rendered the photo so dark as to be almost uncorrectable by Photoshop, but it is a scene identical to the one in your picture here.
In August 1968, I flew my grandmother out to California, where we did a little touring and then I drove her back to Wisconsin for my vacation. We got a little behind, stopping at the Dinosaur National Monument and Rocky Mountain National Park, and the last day I drove 975 miles from Boulder to thick evening fog in southern Wisconsin where we had to stop for the night at a roadside rest stop. It had been terribly hot all day, so much so, that it fogged up my windshield as we cruised with the AC on at a 100 mph on Interstate 82 in my '66 Toronado.
We got up at dawn and made it home by midmorning. A terrible storm like the one yesterday came up soon after we got there. There were winds approaching hurricane force and trees down all over. I told everyone, “that it blew in with me from California.”
After the storm, I took the photo of the red sky accented with very black clouds and the sun trying to break through. I then took my younger brothers into town to survey the damage where I photographed an elm tree that had fallen into a two-story house and cut through like a paper cutter, landing on a bed that was unoccupied in midday. If you care to e-mail me (it's at my website at the end of all my poems) I can send you copies of those two pictures.
Ron
The darkness had been cast away.
Deep down my heart cried soft tears
As I realized that the Lord God shall never cease to amaze."
How powerfully these words can minister to broken hearts and wounded spirits, Rev. Wilson! :) You should have bumper stickers made,, what a neat ministry that would be!
May we never become complacent about the awesomeness of our Creator!
Your poetry is a beautifully-limned reminder of that.. though I must admit, that standing less than 100' from #5 tornado in 1985.. provided me another side of His awesomeness.. the POWER of the Whirlwind! I was literally awestruck by it as I watched it spewing debris.. and frozen in place contemplating GOD's power, until my little daughter Shelley tugged hard on my arm begging me to come in with her.. "or you will die, Mommy!" Well, I did go in then - for her sake.. I placed 5 cats in my dryer, and then put her in the bathtub, placed a pillow over her head, and then laid myself over her..while I gripped my Bible and a wall painting of the head of Christ. I prayed. In minutes it was passed.. it had turned and gone up the hill, 200 yds. above us, and wreaked destruction there.. yet no lives were lost! And as I thankfully gathered my little girl from the bathtub and the cats from the dryer, I discovered yet another side of His might.. His PROTECTION.
Yes, life IS good, my Bubba, if we seek not the darkness, but just His Glory and Light.
For therein we find, yet another side of His greatness: His PEACE.
Thankful for the exquisite photography, and Thankful He always keeps you safe, my Bubba, Love Sis
PS> That same storm passed safely thru our Yankee Territory, too! :)