Wait

Other words were written already for this reading. Those will have to wait because wait as a title was the word I dreamed all last night. That one syllable creates tension whether anticipation of coming delight or anxiety of a unknown future. We who live in a storm area spent the day preparing. Some had to add moving on to out of danger areas to the already upheaval of a virus that can creep in weak places. Others just checked a supply of batteries and peanut butter. Various news of where there be dragons and how they were moving defined our actions during the day. It’s only Wednesday. Laura is coming. Don’t wait to prepare. Wait for her to arrive.

Saturday I had a Bradford pear cut down at the corner of the house. Through the years, growth had intwined branches between electric wires from the easement to the house. Any gust could cause a snap that would leave me in darkness. Tuesday, I made a list and did those things that years had taught me. I walked around the yard and moved pots and chairs that could become flying objects. The bin that held pruning and clippings was rehoused to the garage along with the trash cans. A true mess would be picking up their wet contents. A final look revealed a wreath on the front door that could be teased off its hook.

Though I am always tense about where an eye comes ashore and what havoc that force will wreck on those in that area, my personal history with hurricanes has been one surviving a natural weather phenomenon without damaging results. Several storms came through Hammond while I was a child. I remember sitting with my daddy, watching wind drive rain again louvered windows and then walking town to check on tree damage. In 1957, a June hurricane created stories for college friends from Lake Charles coming back in the fall. Ike wiped out power on Rice Blvd. for a week. Amazingly, temperatures were moderate, and we cooked on a hibachi and managed.

As of now, I am back to waiting. Prognostications say rain at 3:00 this afternoon and through the morning tomorrow. We’ll see. I’ve started a new list: people who have fled to a safer place, people who are caught in surges and heavy winds; struggling businesses facing new challenges, and those first responders we count on to be helpers. I can only picture unknown people and, in my waiting, ask God to be their refuge and strength in this very present trouble.

We will not fear though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its water roar and foam, though mountains tremble with its tumult. Psalm 46:2-3