Thunderclap

God’s voice is glorious in the thunder. We can’t even imagine the greatness of his power.

Job 37:5 (NLT)

I love a good thunderstorm. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like the lightening that strike the earth and spawns countless forest fires. But, I do love the flash and boom of it all. The boom is often referred to as a thunderclap. I remember when I was a kid counting the seconds after I saw the flash until I heard the thunderclap. (BTW, this tells you approximately how many kilometers away the lighting was when it struck.) I would get really excited when the numbers kept getting lower. It meant the lightning was getting closer. Then, there was seven years ago.

At that time, my family and I had just settled in to our new residence on the campus of Milo Adventist Academy. It was well past midnight when a thunderstorm rolled through the valley. I slept through all of it until a lightning bolt struck the top of a hillside only about a quarter mile from our house. The boom was so loud it woke our entire family. The house shook as if we were in an earthquake, the dog yelped, and our heart rates skyrocketed. It was a very, very big boom. Once my wife and I figured out what had happened, we were ready to go back to bed. But, both kids were really freaked out and insisted on sleeping in our room with us. (I’ve always thought this was an odd idea. How can I protect my kids from a loud boom in the sky?)

An encounter with God causes similar effects on people. The power, majesty, and greatness of God on full display either gets people excited, or they run and hide in fear. The first group has come to understand that we have a God of love whose power is always for us. The second group are those who don’t understand the nature of God and think He is a fear-mongering, jealous, evil being bent on our destruction. (See the story of the Israelite’s reaction to God on the mountain with Moses during the whole 10 Commandments thing.)

In God, we have nothing to fear when we know Him and He knows us. His awesome power is for our protection, re-creation, healing, and a million other wonderful things. Most importantly, His power is a saving power. He alone can save us from this life, this world, our sin, and carry us into eternity. His power is always good.