Taking Pause

Psalm 8:1 -- "Oh Lord our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!"

The storms blew in fast and furious. The bird song reverberating through the chimney and into our living room had hardly stopped when the winds took up speed and the skies opened like Niagara Falls. Quick to follow was the crack of lightning - and then the satellite signal was lost to "rain fade".  This didn't really bother me, I was reading, anyway and anybody who really knows me knows I love a good thunderstorm - but the gaggle of guys in my house grumbled as their programs froze into colorful squares, forming unknown textures that resembled a paint by numbers piece. I loved the would-be quiet, listening to the heavy rains beat their music on the roof tops, feeling the rumble of the thunder in my toes through the floor. Picture frames bounced against the walls and do-dads set out for decoration rattled in protest.  No question, the lightning was close. I was, at once, grateful that in our new house, we have no tall oaks to shed limbs that crash into the house.

I wondered where the bird that only seconds before sang so brilliantly down into our chimney was riding out the storm. I thought about the female Mallard with the broken wing, and managed to catch a glimpse of her waddling toward the bush daisies that frame my Crape Myrtle out in the back yard.  She was safe and sound, all be it, alone.  The rest of her gang can take flight where she cannot.

When the satellite signal punched through the storm clouds the TV lit up with an automobile commercial. A happy face was peering up through a canopy of trees while the rain poured down, splashing onto his nose, his forehead, and the easel onto which he was trying to capture the magic, the beauty, the art as seen through his eyes. Immediately I thought: job well done..... the auto company advertised a machine that simply by its use produces some damage to our planet, but continuously bombarded the consumer with bright green forests, crisp rain, flowing rivers, and waves crashing against pristine coast lines. Sneaky - if you ask me. But very well choreographed. The commercial, did, however, make me stop and "enjoy the view".  A wonderful view that the auto company explained so efficiently one could not reach without purchasing their machine.

Ignoring the advertisement, I focused on the color. The fragile lighting. The crisp flowers and brilliant sunset. I took a peek outside and watched the Crape Myrtle all but sling my bird feeders to the ground, the duck snugly tucked in with beak under wing, and the rain that so evenly disrupted the surface of the pond. I wonder what it looked like to the fish.  Do they enjoy the sounds? Or are they afraid? I think I would settle in the soft layer of sediment at the bottom and look up to watch the rain drops break the surface tension and then splash upward.

How wonderfully majestic is our Lord! How amazing are the works of our Creator. The power and the fury of an afternoon thunderstorm, the bright, lush greens that the rains provide, and that smell of wet earth and steam rising from the black top on the streets when the tantrum passes, allowing the hot Florida sunshine to pop back out and dry everything off again.

The broken Mallard peeked out from the bush daisies, shook water from her back and slipped into the pond. The dragon flies as big as humming birds played tag around the big fat Magnolia blossoms and Green Anolies took turn doing push ups on the edge of the concrete porch - trying to outdo one another with their bright red do-laps.

I smile. O Lord....MY Lord, how majestic is Your name in ALL the earth!