Advent 2025
The Tornado

As a boy I had a fascination with storms, more specifically tornados.  After having watched the Wizard of Oz I developed an unhealthy fear of the treacherous windstorms. I remember checking out books from the library about tornados, funnel clouds, wall clouds and the like.  I would spend hours reading…the captions and looking at pictures about the immeasurable power of destruction that these violent inverted cones were capable of.  I remember the paradox of always wanting to see a tornado in person and yet never wanting to encounter the dangerous cloud and endure the life changing devastation that would ensue. 

The closest I ever came to seeing a tornado in person was at the end of a hot July summer day between third and fourth grade.  The air was thick and humid and I remember sitting directly in front of a box fan trying desperately to stay cool in the non climate controlled farm house.  The Minnesota Twins were on the TV and I was manipulating my Rubiks Connector Snake, when the television started beeping and text began scrolling across the bottom of the screen.  It started as, “A severe thunderstorm watch has been issued for the following counties…Hubbard, Todd, Wadena…etc.”  It didn’t take long until the watch turned into a warning…including a tornado watch and even some tornado warnings in our area.  My stomach churned as I remembered the graphic images of tornados from my research. 

My anxiety peaked when my dad came into the house and said, “Get in the basement!”

With great fear and trepidation, I resisted running upstairs to my room to grab my most prized possession…my He-Man action figure. (Despite what my grandmother called it, he was an action figure…not a doll!). Instead, I settled for the only toy I could reach in time, my Rubiks Connector Snake, figuring that I would never see any of my beloved playthings again. 

Despite my dad’s firm warning, he alone remained upstairs looking at the churning sky while my mother took the four of us kids downstairs.  I think my mother could sense the tension that I was feeling.  At one point she placed her arm around me and pulled me in and said, “Hey, it’s going to be ok.”

I don’t exactly know why…but I believed her. She had no power over nature or the wind or the future of my toys, but I still believed her.  In fact, I remember in that moment that even if my stuff was going to be carried away by the wind to the hands of my nemesis neighbor Glen, it was going to be ok. 

My hope made a shift in that moment.  It went from a questioning of the uncertainty of my possessions to a confidence in a promised but unseen future.  One way or another, it was going to be ok. 

We all want to know that it is going to be ok. We want to be secure.  Too often I think we attempt to find hope in our own security.  I don’t think that is the Biblical hope that Jesus provides. 

The hope of Jesus…Biblical Hope, I think is finding our security in Him, when He tells us that if we will put our trust in Him…it will all be ok. 

I think I believe Him.  Do you?

May you find Hope in Jesus this Christmas as you learn to put your trust in Him.