Admiring God's Thunder & Lightning

 

Thunderstorm AJ Casson (Group of Seven)

2 O tell of God's might, O sing of God's grace,

whose robe is the light, whose canopy space,

whose chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form,

and broad is God's path on the wings of the storm.

                               O Worship the King -- Voices United 235

After this I looked, and there in heaven a door stood open! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” At once I was in the spirit, and there in heaven stood a throne, with one seated on the throne! And the one seated there looks like jasper and carnelian, and around the throne is a rainbow that looks like an emerald. Around the throne are twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones are twenty-four elders, dressed in white robes, with golden crowns on their heads. 

Coming from the throne are flashes of lightning and rumblings and peals of thunder...

Revelation 4: 1-5 NRSVue

Early this past Saturday morning we woke up to loud claps of thunder, or at least I did. Ruth was already up and I couldn't find her in the house. She wasn't on one of our decks, exposed to the elements, so she took a chair outside to the covered entrance of our home. I joined her and we oohed and aahed at the flashes of lightning and the rumbles and reports of thunder. As we sat there I began humming a hymn tune and it took me a few moments to identify it and why it spontaneously came to mind. O Worship the King has the poetic and powerful second verse named the deep thunderclouds. 

 We both love thunderstorms although we're glad that our camping and tripping experiences of violent storms have largely come to an end. A couple of years ago Ruth was on the annual canoe outing in Killarney Park with a number of women from the congregation I served in Sudbury. Ruth chose to sleep in her enclosed hammock rather than a tent and one night a massive thunderstorm swept in from Georgian Bay. She was in a cocoon amidst the trees feeling very exposed to the elements. Fortunately she stayed safe and dry. 

Most of us will know of Benjamin Franklin's experiments flying kites in the midst of lightning. His invention of the lightning rod saved many buildings although some churches refused to install them because it was messing with divine purpose. Duh. 

There is a thrill to the experience, tinged with fear, that explains why there are a dozen or more references to thunder and lightning in scripture, including the final book of the New Testament, Revelation. I am loathe to admit that AI does a good job of summarizing the phenomenon:

In scripture, thunder and lightning are powerful symbolic representations of God's wrath, power and presence. The Bible often uses these natural phenomena to convey divine messages, such as warnings or judgments. Specifically, thunder is often associated with God's voice, while lightning is used to symbolize his divine light, judgment, and power. 

I'm partial to the references in Job, including the one below. We can pray that lightning strikes don't set off wildfires through this summer but I hope we can enjoy a couple more tunder-boomers in the season.

“At this also my heart trembles
    and leaps out of its place.
2 Listen, listen to the thunder of his voice
    and the rumbling that comes from his mouth.
3 Under the whole heaven he lets it loose,
    and his lightning to the corners of the earth.
4 After it his voice roars;
    he thunders with his majestic voice,
    and he does not restrain the lightnings[a] when his voice is heard.
5 God thunders wondrously with his voice;
    he does great things that we cannot comprehend.

Job 37:1-5 NRSVue