“I care not today what the morrow may bring, if shadow or sunshine or rain,
The Lord I know ruleth’ o’er everything and all of my worry is vain. “
The sun set on the May Saturday; a little cloudy, warm evening, life was good, Monday was the holiday and Sunday stood between the dates. The town finished the first day of the holiday weekend the last before summer and some but not all went to bed.
“The tempest may blow and the storm clouds arise, obscuring the brightness of life, I’m never alarmed at the overcast skies, the Master looks on at the strife.”
Shortly before midnight, the sky unleashed itself. Plenty of darkness, flattered by lightning and brought to perpetuity, the nights winds entered from the western sky. Electrical service went out and the city became black. Great noise entered in the picture, high winds and a miles width of town became victim to the winds manifesting themselves to a nine mile crawl, bending and breaking trees, pulling at roofs and burying cars with the loose earth. The shattered things that seemed to matter were not enough.
“I know that with safety he’ll carry me thro’, no matter what evils betide, why I care, tho’ the tempest may blow, if Jesus walks close to my side.”
In the time that it took one to walk the block, the storm was gone, beating and plowing the ground for more of Oklahoma. Its harm was terrific, its claim unjustifiable , its horrible, mindless meaning unknown. As the clouds drained down to nothing, as stars and light once again shined, the people, oh the people rose from their night of twisted fate, and across the distance they did climb, to help, to find those who suffered seriously and felt the beginning day rise once more.
“Living by faith, in Jesus above, trusting confiding, in his great love,from all harm safe, in his sheltering arms, I’m living by faith, and I feel no alarm.”
The people came together. Those who needed fed and those who provided food, those needing waters and those who carried the cans. A thousand people gathered for lunch, two thousand for supper, those who delivered, and those who came and carried its destruction away.
“Living by faith, in Jesus above, trusting confiding, in his great love,from all harm safe, in his sheltering arms, I’m living by faith, and I feel no alarm.”
Ralph Peck
Picture by Ralph Peck
Living By Faith, By James Wells
Tornado in Claremore, Oklahoma May 25, 2024
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