Saturday was a crazy never-in-my-life kind of day. The morning was cold and dreary when I went to the gym and rained threatened to make a miserable day for a wedding we were going to at the church. The weather man said there may be a tornado and said that there would be severe storms. I didn't think much of it because we have never had a tornado in Holly Springs since we've been here and one hasn't caused a lot of damage since 1984. It seemed like the nasty weather would hold of before the wedding - and it did, but during the wedding, the clouds burst open! The wedding was still beautiful in spite of what was going on outside. After the wedding, we needed to make a quick run to Target since we would be leaving town on Monday and our Sundays are really busy! En route to Target, I kept getting calls from a lot people asking if we were ok. They said that there were some tornadoes spotted in Holly Springs where we live. I saw pieces of insulation all over Apex but thought that the wind must of blown really hard and that it came from a construction site or something. Little did I know that it probably came from Holly Springs since is right beside Apex. We hurried home worried that maybe something happened to our house. While we drove closer and closer to Holly Springs I didn't know what everyone was so worried about. All we saw were a few branches down and leaves every where - but once we turned on the road we live off of - that's where we saw all of the destruction. Power lines were down every where, trees on houses and cars, big and small trees down all over the place - many just uprooted, street and stop signs and street lights literally bent over almost reaching the grounds, fire trucks and people cleaning up everywhere. My heart sunk and I began to worry about our neighborhood and our house and even about Onyx since we have big trees in our back yard. When we turned on our street, it seemed like it wasn't hit the hardest - just every other street that surrounded ours was hit badly. There were a few trees uprooted and our neighbors fence was knocked completely down, but nothing happened to our house - not even a tree or plant was uprooted in our back yard! I know the Lord protected our house! While we didn't have power for several days and we had to throw away a lot of food, and I had to spend all day Sunday doing laundry at others houses who were so gracious - I have never been so thankful for my small house and thankful for the Lord keeping it safe!
It was so great to see our community come together to help others who were less fortunate than us! Everyone seemed to be out and helping others. We were able to meet several of our neighbors and those who lived in the neighborhood behind us. A group of us decided to walk around and drive around our area. As we did, we saw how truly blessed we were and how much destruction had happened. Many of the roads were closed and impassable due to huge tress covering the road as well as power lines. Our cell phones went in and out also since the tower was damaged and we didn't have a phone line so we couldn't contact anyone and didn't get any news updates. Not only was our area hit but so was downtown Raleigh which is only 30 mins. from us. They had a lot more damage than our little town! In Sanford, which is also 30 mins. from us a Lowe's Hardware was leveled to the ground! The news said that there were 62 tornadoes in NC killing 24 people that day. It helped remind me that our life is not guaranteed the next day or even second. For those whose lives were changed by the tornadoes, I can only imagine how helpless they felt in the midst of something so powerful and out of control. The only one who is in control is the Lord. He had control over that storm - even though we cannot really understand why He allowed that storm to cause so much damage, He promises us that He will take care of us and provide for us despite the terrible things that may happen to us.I am not fearful of death because I know that I will be with the Lord and I though I may worry about it from time to time (which is my sin struggle) I know that the Lord will provide for all of my needs. So, when the storms in your life whether they are actual physical storms the storms of life (the difficult times) come, who or what do you put your trust in?
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