A Lucky Ducky

  A blast of heat driven up from the Gulf of Mexico brought subtropical heat with it yesterday but it wasn't to last. Around four, a cold front blasted through bringing a couple brief, torrential downpours and relief from the humidity. By last night, the temperature had dropped over twenty degrees. This meant wind. A lot of wind.
  I received notice on my phone that someone in the area had lost power. Surely because of a tree coming down. It was okay here so I was able to get out to worship team practice for some much needed worship and a really good laugh.

  One of our younger members had been overseas to a missions school. She shared that from within the fifty students, there had been six weddings as a result of their time together. Our team leader shared that she and her spouse had met at college as well.
  I jokingly commented, "Maybe I should go to college!" It got a laugh.
  "Yah," I said, "Cougar on the campus!"
  I confess to being a bit shocked by this case of mouth-getting-ahead-of-brain. And maybe it wasn't the most appropriate sort of thing to say at a worship practice but...
  I haven't had a belly laugh like that for a long time. We "older" ones laughed even harder when one of the younger members commented, "I don't know if I should laugh or be really creeped out!"
  Oh, honey, I am older but not dead yet.
  All the stress and tension and sorrows of the last week lifted off my shoulders as laugh tears streamed down my cheeks.
  It felt really good to laugh.
  There needs to be more laughter in my life.

  Later that night something amazing happened.
  Which is why I mentioned the wind.
  Lying in bed, just after lights out, I heard a crash. Thinking a tree had come down, I got up to have a look. It wasn't a tree. I'd forgotten to take down the umbrella over the table outside. Normally, the yard is sheltered from the worst of the weather but a gust of wind had lifted the umbrella up taking the three by four foot glass table top with it. Or maybe the glass had been lifted, taking the umbrella with it!
  Praise the Lord, it hadn't broken but was lying on it's side, leaning against the undamaged, metal table frame. It had been turned sideways so the long side was on the ground. The safety glass is heavy which goes to show just how ferocious the wind was!
  The umbrella might be broken beyond repair, I'll have a look at it later in the day but I still feel incredibly blessed by what I view as a miracle.

  "Let us come to him with thanksgiving. Let us sing psalms of praise to him. For the Lord is a great God, a great King above all gods." Psalm 95:2