1963; Chattanooga, Tennessee

This was the second time in less than a year. First it was my beloved Grandmother and now my cousin. It was traumatic standing next to an open coffin containing my cousin’s dead body. He and I were the same age, fourteen. Struck by lightning on a clear day, he toppled off the boat into the lake. Divers were required to find his body.

 

1965; Lakehurst, New Jersey

It was a beautiful summer day when four of us rode our bicycles to Lakehurst Naval Air Station to play golf. As the first puffy black clouds started passing overhead, I knew it was time to get home while we could still do so, but my friends would not listen. They finally did listen when the entire horizon was covered with black clouds spitting lightning. Half way home the storm caught up with us. The black clouds descended to ground level and turned an eerie green while the wind howled and buckets of rain were thrown on us. The wind threw me off my bicycle and terrified, I walked home through the storm. We learned later that a small tornado had touched down.

 

1969; ROTC Basic Training; Fort Benning, Georgia

About 300 of us were sitting on bleacher seats on a commanding hilltop. The Infantry Captain was teaching perimeter defense tactics using a live perimeter that stretched out in front of us. I happened to glance behind us and noticed the first black puffy clouds heading our way. Having grown up in Georgia and constantly in the woods, I recognized the first warning sign. A life-threatening storm is coming our way and the time to take cover was –now! The bleachers we were sitting in were a perfect lightning rod! At the last minute the Captain gave the order to evacuate the bleachers and spread out in the field. The instant I started to stand the lightning struck. Blinding electric blue-white light, crashing thunder, and the smell of ozone filling the air. The lightning strike also simultaneously set off the electrical detonators on the four 55 gallon barrels of napalm out on the perimeter, adding their sound and boiling orange/red fireballs to the chaos. I happened to look up just in time to see the Captain who was wearing a wired microphone flying backwards. In that split second I was standing and whispered to myself; “I’m still alive!”

 

…OK, so my point is? Growing up in Georgia, I learned that these storms are a life and death situation. Seek shelter immediately!

 

Spring 2014; East Broad Street; Columbus, Ohio

It was a beautiful, clear spring day. Since I had missed my morning walk, I decided to get off the bus and walk the mile home. Without a care I exited the bus and started to cross Broad Street. As I looked west the rear of the departing bus grew smaller allowing me to see the first puffy black clouds racing toward me. I looked in despair as the bus, my ONLY, shelter drove away. I found it hard to believe. Where I was standing was a beautiful bright sunny spring day. Less than a mile west of me a wall of rain under a wall of black clouds was racing toward me. Tree branches were falling and being whipped away in the gusting wind. Lightning and thunder were almost continuous. I wanted to run in every direction at the same time. Nearing panic, I cried out to YAH, “Where can I go?” What I heard struck fear in my heart and made no sense;

 

“Stand Still”

 

I could not believe what I had just heard. It was a command that sounded like a drill sergeant yelling in my ear. In obedience to YAH, I stood there on the corner waiting to be drenched and who knows, struck by lightning like my cousin?  The storm overran us, water was running in the street up to the top of the curb and cars stopped driving. The wind was howling and tree branches were falling. As all this was happening I started to realize that I was dry. DRY? I opened my eyes and realized that I was standing in a perfect circle, twenty feet in diameter ---DRY!

 

I stood there in awe and then raised my hands in prayers of thanksgiving. Lowering my head I noticed that a person in a stopped car was watching me ---all I could see through the circle where the fog on the window had been cleared, were the wide eyes!

 

The storm moved quickly on its way toward the east and I started south to home as the Amidah went through my mind.

 

We thank you, that you are YAH our Elohim, and the Elohim of our fathers, forever. You are the rock of our lives, the shield of our salvation, in every generation. We will thank you and tell your praise for our lives which are given over into your hand, and for our souls which are in safekeeping with You, and for your miracles which are with us every day, and for Your wonders and goodnesses that occur at all times – in evening and in the morning, and in the afternoon. You are good, for you have not stopped your compassion, and you are the Merciful One, for your loving-kindness has not ceased.

 

For all these, may Your NAME be blessed and exalted, our King, continually forever and ever.

Exodus 14: 13-14 New King James Version (NKJV)

 

13 And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever.

 

14 The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.”

 

 

1 Samuel 12:14-17 English Standard Version (ESV)

 

14 If you will fear the Lord and serve him and obey his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, and if both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God, it will be well.

 

15 But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you and your king.[a]

 

16 Now therefore stand still and see this great thing that the Lord will do before your eyes.

 

17 Is it not wheat harvest today? I will call upon the Lord, that he may send thunder and rain. And you shall know and see that your wickedness is great, which you have done in the sight of the Lord, in asking for yourselves a king.”

 

 

2 Chronicles 20: 13-17  Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)

 

13 All Y’hudah stood before Adonai with their little ones, their wives and their children.

 

14 Then, in the middle of the assembly, the Spirit of Adonai came upon Yachzi’el the son of Z’kharyahu, the son of B’nayah, the son of Ye‘i’el, the son of Matanyah the Levi, from the descendants of Asaf.

 

15 He said, “Listen, all Y’hudah, you who live in Yerushalayim and King Y’hoshafat: here is what Adonai is saying to you: ‘Don’t be afraid or distressed by this great horde; for the battle is not yours, but God’s.

 

16 Tomorrow, go down against them. They will be coming up by the ascent of Tzitz, and you will find them at the end of the vadi, before the Yeru’el Desert.

 

17 You won’t even need to fight this battle! Just take your positions, Y’hudah and Yerushalayim, stand still, and watch how Adonai will deliver you! Don’t be afraid or distressed; tomorrow, go out against them; for Adonai is with you.’”