Thunderstorm

Back when I was teaching I had a couple of students who were terrified of thunderstorms. If the sky started to get dark during the school day you could almost watch them melt down into their seats. I remember one boy in particular who--when the rumbles started--would almost always have teardrops accompany the raindrops falling from the sky.

So, since Eli has been young, I've always tried to be quite enthusiastic about approaching thunderstorms. We'll cheer on the lightning and "Wow-ee!" at the thunder. I'll jump up in mock surprise whenever we hear a crash and he'll grin and follow suit. He likes to watch the rain race down the windowpane with his nose pressed up against the glass. It's all very exciting.

I think we may have overdone it.

Last night we had a doozy of a storm. It really rolled in a little after 10:00 when Dave and I were heading to bed. Somehow, Luke was able to sleep through the cacophony, but Eli didn't want to miss the show. After being slightly rattled by the first few big crashes, he and I watched for a while at the window and then he crawled into our bed to listen. Finally, with thunder still rumbling in the distance, he was back in his crib and down for the night.

Or so I thought.

About forty-five minutes later, with the lightning and rain stopped, I woke up to Eli's very loud "Uh-oh!" I rushed into the boys' room, not wanting Luke to wake up. Eli's big eyes were staring up at the window and his finger was pointing. "Morn," (more) he pleaded at me. "Morn. Wanning. (raining) Morn. Pees." The boy clearly wanted another light show.

We sat in the rocker for awhile and as Eli stared wistfully at the window I quietly tried to explain to him about weather. My basic point: God's in charge of it, not mommies. I was as powerless to make the storm start again as I would have been to have made it stop. There's a lot I can do to try to get my kids ready for the storms, but I've really got no control over when they come. God's in charge of it, not mommies.

Eli woke up this morning looking forward to the next storm. He went right to the window and hoped to see more rain. I'm not sure I'm quite so enthusiastic about all the inclement weather ahead, but I'm sure glad that God's in charge of it, not mommies.