Tonight I witnessed an amazing, dramatic and a somewhat scary weather event. We had experienced one of our usual beautiful sunny days with not much indication that something sinister was brewing when at about a quarter to five in the late afternoon the wind started to pick up. There seemed to be something changing in the atmosphere, so much so that I thought I would go out and bring in the church tablecloths I had washed and were hanging on the line.

By the time I got outside I needed to call for assistance to help me catch the spinning line as the wind had whipped up into a frenzy. To add to the event the sky had turned red and the dust in the air was stinging my eyes. When I didn’t think it could get any worse the sky changed from red to black and the dust was so thick I could not see over the fence. Wrestling those tablecloths off the line was an aerobic workout in itself and once I got inside it felt like all I could smell was dust. I stared outside at the dark night-like sky which had come an hour early!

As in all phenomenons such as this I checked Facebook to determine how far reaching this episode was. I had friends in neighbouring towns posting photos of the dust storm rolling in. One friend was travelling home and had to pull over because visibility was so impaired. Another had made a quick dash outside in the storm and was covered in dust mixed with rain. Stories of people being scared at home were among the accounts. This was an ‘out of the ordinary’ event and people were documenting it in a variety of ways, and yet all the photos and videos could not really do it justice.

All up the weather event lasted for 15 minutes, and it made the national news. It was simply a dust storm, a big one, but just that. Once it was over the sky returned to normal as if nothing had ever happened! As I sit here and reflect on what I can learn from this event I realise that in the grand scheme of things, this was pretty minor. I felt that the storm raged around me and I could witness it from a safe place.

A Bible story that springs to mind is found in Exodus chapter 33 when Moses hides in a crevice of the mountain and God covers him with His hand so that God’s glory does not harm Moses as He passes by. That protection from the elements, from the storm, is what I felt tonight and I am grateful for the reminder that God protects me too. He doesn’t stop the storm, but He shields me in the midst of it, and I think it is helpful that I was shown that this week, this day, this night.

Be blessed.

(Oh, and if you want to see some really cool photos and videos of today’s storm, Google “Mildura Dust storm”!)