Bless This House - AGAIN!!!

"Dear God,
Bless this house oh Lord I pray, keep it safe by night and day - Amen."

CRACK!  BOOM!  Foundation SHAKIN!  Dishes RATTLIN!  Power FLICKERIN! - all in a millisecond!

I sat straight up in bed and could hear myself making that sound.  You know that sound you make when you're surprised or scared.  That sounds like a really long "huh?" only you're inhaling instead of exhaling.

"HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUH!?!?!?!"

My sound woke up Jace, "What?"

"Didn't you hear that?"

"It was thunder," he said trying to calm me down.

"No!  Didn't you HEAR that?  We were just struck by lightning!"

"It was just thunder and the power is out," he assured me as he hopped out of bed to check it out.

"No!  We were struck by lightning - AGAIN!"  I insisted, following him up the stairs.  Our daughter met us at the top.

"What was that?"  she asked in a scared voice.  I was having Déjà vu.

Jace headed towards the computer with the intent to silence its continuous screech, indicating that it was in a serious flatline.  I went and looked out my daughter's window.  Yep, there was debris in the yard - AGAIN!  And there was that sick, smoky, burnt smell - AGAIN!

"Jace, don't you smell that? And there's debris in the yard.  I'm telling you we were hit - AGAIN!"

He couldn't make the screeching stop.  Abandoning it, he went out to brave the storm and look for damage.

"Mommy..." my daughter says, "my tooth fell out!"

What?  I stopped my frantic pacing to look at her and process what she'd just said.  "You're tooth fell out?  When?"

"I just woke up because I felt it in my mouth and then I heard the thunder."

Ha ha!  I little comic relief right when I needed it.  Just then Jace came back inside.

"We were hit," he said.

"Really?!"  I knew it but I still had a hard time believing it.  Once you've heard the sound of lightning hitting your house you will NEVER forget it!  "In the same place?"

"Yep."

So for anyone who thinks "lightning never strikes twice", I've got bad news for you!  I'm living proof that it most definitely does.

When this happened last year I saw it as a blessing.  Nobody was hurt and everything could be fixed. I have no idea why God would allow this to happen - AGAIN, but He certainly has my attention.  This time I see it as an even bigger blessing.  God showed us that He is in charge and looking out for us - AGAIN!

Interesting little story though...the next morning I got up and the first thing I usually do is read my daily bible verse on YouVersion (the bible app for your phone).  Well, it wouldn't come up because our wi-fi was fried!  Ugh!  Of all days, I really needed some guidance, some encouragement, which I can always count on from God's word.  Then it hit me - Duh!  I can just read my real bible.  So it wouldn't be part of the reading plan I was doing, but this would be fun, even more revealing.  I decided that I would just pick up the bible, open it, and the first thing I saw would obviously be what God wanted me to read that day.  So I opened it and this is what I saw:

Isaiah 6:1-4 (NLT)
1 It was in the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple. 2 Attending him were mighty seraphim, each having six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. 3 They were calling out to each other,

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies!
The whole earth is filled with his glory!”

4 Their voices shook the Temple to its foundations, and the entire building was filled with smoke [emphasis mine].

If you know anything about me by now (besides the fact that I have a really great memory) it's probably that I do not believe in coincidence.  When I read passage 4, I felt like it was exactly describing my house when the lightning stuck.  Intrigued by this idea I read all of Chapter 6 and then some of the supporting documentation to learn more about Isaiah.  Turns out he is considered the greatest Old Testament prophet and is quoted at least 50 times in the New Testament.  The "Key" verse, which is also in Chapter 6 (again no coincidence here), reads:

8 Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to my people? Who will go for us?”

And I said, “Lord I'll go! Send me.”

Isaiah was humbled and changed by his unforgettable vision of God, so much so that he immediately answered God's call on his life to be a messenger.  God did not encourage Isaiah with promises of success.  As a matter of fact He basically told him that the people would not listen, but he needed to spread the message anyway.

That is how I feel.  I hear you God.  I know your power.  I know your love and your mercy.  I'll go!  Send me. 

There is so much more to this chapter than I can possible go into right here, right now.  But I've covered the parts that spoke to me the most that day.  I took it as a sign that I am to continue to be God's messenger.  Now please do not misunderstand me, I am not claiming to be a modern day prophet or anything.  Just that I feel called to keep doing what I'm doing through this blog.  Maybe nobody will read it.  Or if they do, maybe nobody will respond to it.  But if there's a chance that it helps even one person then it is worth it. 

So I'll wrap this up by thanking God for blessing our house and keeping us safe - AGAIN!  Amen!