So, my last couple of submissions here concerned a difficult issue. They were, therefore, somewhat on the heavy side. And, I can just hear some of you out there thinking those immortal words of Sergeant Hulka in the great movie “Stripes” – “Lighten up, Francis.”
All right; you’re right. Let’s see if we can “lighten up” a little.
As I mentioned Sunday, it was a neighbor who gave me the inspiration for Sunday’s sermon. And that inspiration came as we talked while I was doing some yard work last Tuesday afternoon. What I did not mention was that the yardwork I was doing was mainly picking up sticks and branches that had fallen when a brief storm blew through earlier that day. The storm didn’t last long, but it packed quite a punch. Lightning was flashing all over the place. And, sure enough, one of those lightning bolts finally blasted one of the giant pine trees in my backyard.
Dr. Emmett Brown, in the movie “Back To The Future”, is correct: “you never know when or where [lightning] is ever gonna strike.” Despite that, my wife happened to be looking through the windows into the backyard at the exact moment the lightning struck the tree. The flash of light was brilliant. And the accompanying clap of thunder nearly blew out both the windows and her eardrums. The whole incident, which took place far more quickly than it takes to read about, was both thrilling and unnerving at the same time. Or, to quote Freddie Mercury: “Thunderbolt and lightning – very, very frightening!”
The power of that lightning bolt [1.21 gigawatts?] was amazing. The tree which was struck did not fall. [At least, not yet. Now we must watch to see if it has been mortally wounded; and if so, it will have to be taken down.] But pieces of it flew all over the place. Not only were there pieces of the tree’s limbs under the tree and farther away in the backyard, but pieces of it had also flown into the front yard, and into my neighbor’s yard.
This led me to do some quick research today into the natural phenomena of thunder and lightning. The first article I read was published on December 30, 2002, in “Scientific American”, and was written by a professor from Honolulu Community College. And it was almost incomprehensible – something about a “superheated electron stream and a resonating tube of partial vacuum”? I think?
Well, incomprehensible to me anyway. But I’m thinking that if this is the level of teaching that was available at a Community College in Honolulu 19 years ago, what might be happening in the science classes and labs at places like MIT and Stanford today? Who knows? Maybe cures for diseases are right around the corner. Maybe ways to end hunger and thirst and poverty and crime are about to be revealed. Maybe world peace is at hand.
I hope so. But I’m not counting on it.
After that first difficult science article on lightning and thunder, I looked at another, this time from The National Severe Storms Laboratory. This article was called “Severe Weather 101 – Lightning Basics”. This one should be understandable, right? Any “101” class has got to be pretty simple, right? Well, you guessed it – it was still incomprehensible, to me.
I decided that, as long as it’s going to be beyond my understanding anyway, I think I would prefer to listen to God explain these things. In the Book of Job, we see that God’s authority and His actions have been challenged by a man – a man who thinks he is entitled to an explanation for what has happened in his world. Interestingly, God Himself finally speaks and responds to this man. And part of His response involves this very phenomenon of lightning. God says - “Can you give a command to the lightning? Will it come to you and say, ‘Here we are; what do you want, sir?’ Will it go wherever you want it to go?” Job 38:35.
I get it. This doesn’t “explain” the science of lightning. God is not impressed that there are people who understand the science of lightning. To Him, that’s not the point. The point is that not a single person who understands the science of lightning can do with it the things that God can do with it. They know ABOUT lightning - they know what causes it, they know its effects, they even know how many gigawatts of electricity it actually produces. But they do not KNOW lightning – not the way God knows lightning. They cannot command lightning; they cannot send it anywhere; it does not listen to them. But to God, those things are simple, child’s play really, something done in a nanosecond while He upholds the universe, and watches the sparrows falling, and overflows with grace and love and blessings to the people of this earth.
Are you on your knees yet? Is that praise for Him that I hear coming from your lips?
I don’t know much more about lightning now than I did when it struck my tree, or when I started exploring it “scientifically” today. But maybe I know my God a little better now. And maybe you do too.
Ambrose Ramsey | Shepherd
