The Storm Sparrow

Kind of a vicious forecast we have today, folks. I lived in this area for seven years the first stint and am now in the twenty-second year this go round. This winter was the first time we’d had a blizzard predicted and sure enough, we had one. Almost two months ago. And, by the way, it did come, pretty much as NOAA predicted with frigid temps, a noticeable wind, and maybe ten inches of snow.

And now we have another one heading our way if the folks who say such things are saying correctly.

Temps predicted to drop from near sixty this morning into the mid-twenties tonight. Rain changing to snow at some point. The thing bothering me the most is the third element of that blizzard concept: the wind.

If they’re right, and I sure hope they aren’t, we could have gusts up to seventy miles an hour! Man, that kind of wind will strip the stink of a pole cat! Knock the mail out of your box. Might be a Shel Silverstein kind of a wind that leaves your hat where it is but blows your head away.

I’m hoping—and praying—that either the forecasters miss the call or the call misses us.

Right chere in Doniphan County, I have a bit of hope. We are at the extreme southern tip of the blizzard warning map. All we need is just an itty bitty tilt in the other direction. Something a bit stronger than the beat of a butterfly’s wing that will drive the storm one hour’s drive north…

Is it wrong for me to pray that it misses us if I don’t pray for North Dakota? Wrong for me to ask to be spared any harm or damage if I’m not praying the same for Nebraska? Wrong to just be hoping it slides up and over instead of coming right through? What if the butterfly flies the wrong way?

Should I just be praying for grace and strength and wisdom and peace for all of us? And remember that God keeps his eye on the sparrow?

And if some Kansas sparrow ends up in Baton Rouge, well, I reckon the Lord can feed him there as well as here. The same wind that blows the nest away can leave fresh stems and strings for the new one.