We had not been home from church long this past Sunday. I was sitting at the table eating my lunch when I noticed huge thunderclouds building up in the west. A few minutes later my phone buzzed with three weather alerts about an impending thunderstorm. I decided to get some pictures of the coming storm- this is one of them. I took a few photos and then headed back inside just before the winds started. A few minutes later we were pommeled with rain, lightening and marble sized hail. People in town had broken windows, destroyed gardens, and floods to deal with. All from a short but very intense storm. It proves that mother nature is in control and not us. Despite numerous forecasts and modern inventions, no one could escape from the violent storm.
We as human beings like to control our environments. We build houses to shelter us from storms, keep us warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Our water is heated or cool when we want it. Same with our cars, we have not only heating and cooling systems for the car's interiors, but we have heated seats and mirrors as well. Anyway that we can we like to make the world around us controlled.
Then nature reacts. Hail, rain, snow, wind, earthquakes, tsunamis, and fires all have shown themselves to be beyond our control. Weather predictions attempt to be more and more precise- one alert that I received on Sunday told me that the storm would start at 2:12pm and would last three hours where we would get 10 mms of rain. Hail wasn't mentioned. Everything about that forecast was wrong. No matter how sophisticated our weather equipment gets, nature just can't be put in the box.
This seems a good predictor for 2020. Who would have predicted on January 1st about how life would be so different in just a few weeks time. At New Year, who would have thought about toilet paper shortages, social distancing, closed borders, and hydroxychloroquine. People at New Year's always have hopes for the year to come and 2020 was no different. Many were making jokes about having 20/20 vision. Nature though had other plans.
I think this is a sign of sorts. No I am not talking end of the world kind of talk. But this year has shown us that we aren't in control. No matter how much we think we can control the world, our world has other plans. From major weather systems to tiny viruses, our world has the upper hand. Maybe this year will teach us that we cannot be smug- mother is in control. Blessings.
