Post by Josh on Jul 3, 2008 20:39:31 GMT -8
Last night, Rose and I laid awake witnessing the incredible thunder and lightning strikes that swept through the Portland area. And even though we were awakened in the dead middle of night I found myself thinking about quite a lot of things.
I was thinking first about the drive I took through SE Portland after having dinner with Nate the evening before. For some reason it just seemed as I looked out at the people walking down the street, driving alongside me, sitting out in front of restaraunts, etc. that I could feel the intense emptiness that so many people live with. It was just one of the moments of clarity where the treasure we have in Christ was starkly contrasted with the vacuous emptiness that many of the people in this world live in day in and day out.
I found myself thinking about people who go through their lives without hope, without peace, without even looking upward at all- droning through their lives like automotons. Does even a hint of another world break through into their existence?
Flash forward to the thunderstorm. I had an epiphany. It wasn't just Rose and I in our own little world sitting watching the lightning, listening to the thunder and the torrents of rain. It was most of Portland, I'm sure (this was a serious thunderstorm!)
There are very few things that cause a mass of the population to sit up and take notice all at once. Movies and TV command the attention of millions, it's true. But in one locality, the media cannot even compare with the voice of a thunderstorm of this magnitude.
Everyone was listening, I imagine. Everyone was taking note in the solitude of their own rooms in the darkness.
I know scientifically what causes thunderstorms, but as we've discussed elsewhere on this forum, when you're in the midst of a thunderstorm of this intensity, it's hard not to feel a sense of otherworldly, numinous, dread... or awe... or a little of both.
And now I understand why the Bible speaks so often of God or God's voice as thunder-- of God's acts as lightning.
Thunder and lightning are a sign of something beyond us... above us... deeper than us... more powerful than us... more mysterious than our ordered lives...
Last night Portland got a glimpse into another world. I wonder how many picked up on it.
For previous thoughts on thunderstorms see:
Michelle's "Thunderstorms"
and
Lightning and Love: thoughts on Miracles
I was thinking first about the drive I took through SE Portland after having dinner with Nate the evening before. For some reason it just seemed as I looked out at the people walking down the street, driving alongside me, sitting out in front of restaraunts, etc. that I could feel the intense emptiness that so many people live with. It was just one of the moments of clarity where the treasure we have in Christ was starkly contrasted with the vacuous emptiness that many of the people in this world live in day in and day out.
I found myself thinking about people who go through their lives without hope, without peace, without even looking upward at all- droning through their lives like automotons. Does even a hint of another world break through into their existence?
Flash forward to the thunderstorm. I had an epiphany. It wasn't just Rose and I in our own little world sitting watching the lightning, listening to the thunder and the torrents of rain. It was most of Portland, I'm sure (this was a serious thunderstorm!)
There are very few things that cause a mass of the population to sit up and take notice all at once. Movies and TV command the attention of millions, it's true. But in one locality, the media cannot even compare with the voice of a thunderstorm of this magnitude.
Everyone was listening, I imagine. Everyone was taking note in the solitude of their own rooms in the darkness.
I know scientifically what causes thunderstorms, but as we've discussed elsewhere on this forum, when you're in the midst of a thunderstorm of this intensity, it's hard not to feel a sense of otherworldly, numinous, dread... or awe... or a little of both.
And now I understand why the Bible speaks so often of God or God's voice as thunder-- of God's acts as lightning.
Thunder and lightning are a sign of something beyond us... above us... deeper than us... more powerful than us... more mysterious than our ordered lives...
Last night Portland got a glimpse into another world. I wonder how many picked up on it.
For previous thoughts on thunderstorms see:
Michelle's "Thunderstorms"
and
Lightning and Love: thoughts on Miracles