The Voice of the Lord

Weather: Fascinating. Awesome. Foreboding.

We arrived at the Yacht Club last evening just as the fish was being fried for the feast. Right on St. Andrews Bay the weather was perfect, breezy, not hot as we expected. 

At six o’clock Linda said, “You need to go get in line!” The bell rang, my tickets were taken, and two plates were handed to me. John accused me of being first in line, but the man on the other side of the serving table was first, I was a respectable second. Cole slaw, potato salad, cheese grits, hushpuppies, fried fish of various kinds. Tasty, delicious. My forbid to eat fried food was suspended last evening for the duration of the Holy Nativity Episcopal School fish fry following the annual fishing tournament that is so helpful to our school. As Linda’s knee was hurting badly, we ate and ran. Hobbled actually.

Not our weather for the fish fry, the photo is awesome. Tassy’s friend caught the image on St. George Island yesterday morning and emailed it. It’s fascinating. Looming. Foreboding.

My reincarnation plan is to be a meteorologist. Nothing on earth is more fascinating than weather. There is the vast expanse of interstellar space, galaxies, suns, the planets in their courses; but on this fragile earth, our island home, nothing is so awesome as weather, peaceful, gathering, looming, bursting, violent. My favorite TV shows are the storm chasers who hightail it all over the plains pursuing tornadoes. 

Years ago at Trinity, Apalachicola we had a young parishioner and family from Oklahoma. A National Weather Service meteorologist, he was on assignment at the local weather station that we had in Apalachicola until the onset of doppler radar, when the station’s mission relocated to Tallahassee. John's degree was in meteorology, his chosen career weather because he grew up in Oklahoma in awe of tornadoes, and his aspiration was to be a weather forecaster. When the station closed and his family left Apalachicola, they naturally went home to Oklahoma. My awe is tornadoes too, but especially hurricanes. Before my reincarnation as a meteorologist, while still in the spirit, I’m going to ride ashore in a Category 5 hurricane. Not into Bay County though.

A favorite praise song: 

Psalm 29 Afferte Domino

Ascribe to the Lord, you gods,

ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.

Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;

worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

The voice of the Lord is upon the waters;

the God of glory thunders,

the Lord is upon the mighty waters.

The voice of the Lord is a powerful voice;

the voice of the Lord is a voice of splendor.

The voice of the Lord breaks the cedar trees,

the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon.

He makes Lebanon skip like a calf,

and Mount Horeb like a young wild ox.

The voice of the Lord splits the flames of fire;

the voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness;

the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.

The voice of the Lord makes the oak trees writhe

and strips the forests bare.

And in the temple of the Lord

all are crying “Glory!”

The Lord sits enthroned above the flood;

the Lord sits enthroned as King for evermore.

The Lord shall give strength to his people;

the Lord shall give his people the blessing of peace.

Amen! Amen.

TW+