Bowling from Heaven

As a child I used to be absolutely terrified of thunderstorms.  My dad would always sit out on our screened in porch to listen to them and I would beg him to come inside, convinced the lightning was going to "get him."  If the storm happened at night, one crash of thunder would send 5-year old me scurrying into my sister's room to hide under her covers.  Somehow the fact that she was three years older than me made her my protector from all things scary.  My parents would tell me that the thunder was just the angels bowling in heaven.  From then on whenever there was a really loud "thunder boomer" I would tell myself they just got a strike!

Last night we had a pretty spectacular thunderstorm, which kept me up for a good part of the night.  Now I love thunderstorms.  In fact, when we moved to SC one of the first things I asked the realtor was if there were good thunderstorms here.  (During our four years in Okinawa we maybe had 3 good storms.)  Anyway, whenever I hear distant thunder there is always a sense of excitement.  The lightning was so brilliant it hurt my eyes even though they were closed.  Some crashes of thunder were so loud it sounded like the sky itself was splitting in two!

While listening to the storm with my covers pulled tightly around my chin (some habits die hard), I thought about the ways storms reflect the nature of God.  All things in creation were made by His hands, and, like any piece of art that reflects something of the character of the artist, so too does the natural world reflect a part of who God is.  I kept coming back to the fact that God is sovereign over everything.  This simply means that God is in control.  Paul writes so eloquently in Romans 11:33-36, "Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!  Who has known the mind of the Lord  Or who has been his counselor?  Who has ever give to God, that God should repay him?  For from him and through him and to him are all things.  To him be the glory forever!  Amen."  

Just as lightning permeates the sky, so God's presence is felt and seen through all creation.  He knows all there is to know, about the past, the present and the future.  He knows your words before you speak them, and your thoughts before you think them.  He knows who will choose his path of salvation before they ever submit their lives to Jesus.  Here some may stop and say, "Wait!  What about free will?"  The beauty of the gospel is that we have the choice to make whether or not we will follow God.  He reveals himself to us through his creation and through His Word (the Bible), in which he lays out his plan for salvation (Jesus taking on our sins and dying on the cross.)  But then the ball is in our court.  Will we choose to follow Christ and have eternal life?  Or will we choose our own path to destruction and death?  God knows your ultimate decision, but it's still your choice to make.  He will not force you to love him, but He is waiting for you with open arms.  "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened."  (Matthew 7:7-8)

The sky outside is cloudy and the forecast calls for rain.  I wonder if the angels will be bowling again tonight.