Discussions of God, Thunder and Bowling

“The wise man in the storm prays to God, not for safety from danger, but deliverance from fear”
~Ralph Waldo Emerson~

Tonight was a night of booming thunder and flashes of lightening when Dad and I tucked you both in for the night. While Julia settled in without any concern for the activity happening outside, this was a great concern for you Noah. You sat up in your bed, with ‘Puppy’ in your clutches, and you couldn’t take your eyes off of your window.

I remember being afraid of thunderstorms too. I think it was because I didn’t understand what the loud noise was all about, and I heard stories about people and things getting struck by lightning. I did not know how rare it was for this to happen to people, and that it never happened to anyone tucked safely in their beds. As I got older, I became fascinated by thunderstorms with their booming sounds and claps of light stricken across the sky. I began to realize how beautiful this was, and marvel at how extremely rare it was for lightening to strike twice in the same spot. Yet I understood tonight that you are not ready to accept the beauty of this just yet.

I told you that someone once told me that the sounds of thunder are made when God is bowling, and Dad suggested that lightening occurs when God gets a strike. You asked us if this is true, so we gave you the best answer we could.

We said we didn’t really know.

Then, we asked you what you thought about it. You decided for yourself, that it sounded like God was bowling, and you decided to count the bolts of lightning as strikes. We thought this was a pretty good idea too. It wasn’t long after, that I noticed you weren’t scared anymore. Every time the lightning flashed after that, you called out, “Mom! There goes another strike!” While I should have pointed out that you should have been trying to get to sleep at that point, I couldn’t help but smile.

Since going to church with Grammy, you have started to have your own ideas about God. I’m hoping that you and Julia will help me figure that out one day. Religion itself has always bothered me a bit, or perhaps it’s more like people’s interpretations that have rubbed me the wrong way.

Faith is another story entirely.

I have faith in a great many things. Even when times are tough, even when it seems like people will never get along; I have faith that there will always be good in this world. I have faith in my friends. I have faith in my family.

I have faith in the two of you.

I have never really felt that I needed to go to a church to have faith. Yet, I do believe that church should be about community, so perhaps I’ll come with you and Grammy one day to see for myself.

You never know when lightning could strike.

;)