Hurricane Harvey this week has devastated the greater Houston area. Unless you have actually been in such a storm, it is hard to describe. A friend of mine who lives in Houston (and goes to Joel Osteen’s church, which is another story) kept filming out his living room window and posting on facebook until they had to evacuate. Scary stuff. Hurricanes are bad things, anyway, but it seems the ones in the Gulf of Mexico are extra rough. That may be because there are so many city’s of some size that can be battered.

          Part of what makes a hurricane so fearsome is the fact that you know it is coming for days in advance. When Marsha and I first moved to Miami FL in 1978, we were treated to an announcement on the evening news that there was a tropical disturbance off the cost of Africa. We looked at each other and kind of snickered. So what? Does that mean something? Little did we know that this is where almost all Atlantic hurricanes, and over half of the Gulf hurricanes, start. A tropical disturbance off the coast of Africa. Back then when you went to get groceries, you took them home in brown paper bags provided by the super market. We had noticed that on the bags there was printed a chart, with latitude and longitude lines, that showed the ocean from Africa to the North American coast, with all the islands, and on into the Gulf. As it headed west that tropical disturbance strengthened into a tropical wave, then a tropical storm and then am hurricane. As it drew closer to the mainland the local news would break into programming every hour and update the chart. We would take out our grocery bag chart and keep marking it, as well. This storm took a week to cover the ocean from Africa to where it threatened Miami. Since it was our first one, we stayed glued to the TV. Along the way it hit Haiti and several other islands pretty hard. It continued to strengthen as it drew closer. Then, just as we began to feel the first head winds (it was still a day and a half away from Miami) it moved a little south. It slashed into Cuba and churned right along and went into the Gulf of Mexico. There, wonders of wonders, it spun itself out without hitting anything very hard.

          We learned quickly what the procedures were that you were supposed to follow in the face of a hurricane. Fill the bathtub with water. You would use that to flush toilets and drink water when the power went out. Stock up with seven days of food. A bad hurricane would stop everything for a week. Be ready to evacuate at a moment’s notice. We lived three quarters of a mile from the ocean. We couldn’t see the ocean because of all the buildings, but the storm surge would easily reach us in a moderate to severe storm. Obey law enforcement and rescue workers. Stay off the phones. Call emergency numbers only with an emergency, not to get weather reports. Have lots of batteries for flashlights and radios. It was all very frightening.

          The thing was, there would be storm warnings all the time during the hurricane season. At the beginning, every time a disturbance would form off the coast of Africa, we were getting our grocery bag charts out. We were buying extra food, we were filling jugs with water, we were putting tape on our windows so when they blew in glass would not go everywhere. And nothing would happen. The disturbance would slowly go away or if it did develop into a storm it would just be a tropical storm with winds around 50 mph and rain. The natural movement of an Atlantic storm is actually to turn north before landfall and churn along a couple of hundred miles off the Atlantic seaboard until it would spin out. Sometimes it would turn into land around the Carolinas, sometimes go as far north as New York. And quite often, the storms headed for Miami would drift south and enter the Gulf. We were rarely hit while we were there. In fact, in the years we were in the Miami area, we were hit only once, after about seven years. Prior to that, it had been twenty years since Miami had been hit.

          This gave rise to an attitude of, “it is never going to happen.” A hurricane would be closing in and people would have hurricane parties, which were just opportunities to drink. People wouldn’t evacuate. They would ignore the warnings. We were just as bad, eventually. Time after time you brace for the hit, then it goes away. You know it can happen, but you get to where you ignore it. Until…..

          When it finally hit Miami, I was expecting it to turn away at the last minute. I needed to go up to Ft. Lauderdale and so I went. I was on the highway when the hurricane made landfall. We had been there seven years and it hadn’t happened. Now it was there and I, being the genius I am, was on the road. And when the storm blew the back end of my truck into the canal, I had to get out, which was an even more terrifying thing.

          We need to pray for Houston and surrounding areas. This has been a massive storm. But we need to see a connection, also. The Bible says that the Lord is coming back. We have gotten so used to Him not coming back we have gotten ho-hum about it. We think we have lots of time. Actually, we don’t think about it at all, mostly. John 4:35---Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, then comes the harvest'? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that ¹the fields are white for harvest.  The Lord’s coming will be unexpected, but our time is running out. Now is the time to seek the harvest.