After my husband got up to shower, I fell back asleep and had the following dream this morning.......I was chatting with him upstairs in our house, when suddenly it grew dark. It was morning, and I thought it was odd that it was so dark. I began to hear the whistling of the wind. I looked out a window and was amazed at how many clouds were rolling in. They were moving quickly and I had this sense of foreboding come over me. I knew something was not right.
I got Joel's attention and told him to look out the window. He only briefly glanced out the window and dismissed it as a morning thunderstorm rolling in. In a few seconds I saw a pinkish glow starting to shine between the gray of the clouds. My fear deepened. I prayed a quick thought prayer for safety and protection and seconds later the sky was mostly clear and it was quiet outside.
I was so distracted by the weather that I wasn't really paying attention to what Joel was trying to tell me. He gave up and went to take his shower. While he was in the shower I went downstairs to start my usual morning routine. I was about to get some breakfast when suddenly it was dark again and the sound was no longer just a whistling, but the chugging of a freight train. I felt like my ears were blocked and the sound was starting to get muffled. I also felt like I was being pushed over even though there was no wind entering the house at all.
The sky had turned completely reddish pink with a film of dust coating everything I looked at. Then I saw it. I have giant sliding glass doors downstairs in my house, and I had the perfect view. A gigantic funnel cloud had touched down and was headed toward our house. Richard was downstairs trying to talk to me. The girls were upstairs getting dressed. Joel was in the shower oblivious.
I began to pray. "I plea the blood over my house and my family." I was speaking out loud and Richard stopped to listen. "I command under the authority of the cross that this will not come night my house." Within seconds it was too loud for me to speak evenly and I was shouting. "Help us Father!" "I pray protection over my property, and command every evil thing to flee in the name of Jesus!"
I could hear the windows rattling around us and I knew that only God's power could keep our house standing. Suddenly it grew quiet. The girls came running downstairs shouting, "Look, Mama! Out the window!" They were pointing and yelling. We walked into our living room, a room that is almost surrounded by windows. All we could see was a thick wall of swirling clouds. It was completely silent. I could still hear the wind whistling, but I knew we must be in the eye of the storm and it had stopped square around our house.
I told the girls to come sit on the rug with Richard and I. I told them we needed to pray, because as soon as the storm moved on we would be in danger again. We joined hands in a circle, sitting on the floor and each of the children began to pray. Their word's were simple, as children's prayers usually are. They each took a turn and then it was my turn to pray.
Before I could utter a syllable, it stopped. Just like that. I opened my eyes and the sun was shining and the cloud was gone. It was as if nothing had happened. I couldn't believe it at first. I ran up the stairs and met Joel coming out of the bathroom dressed for work. I tried to tell him in a rush what had happened while he was in the shower.
I only got a few word of explanation out before I heard a scratching sound behind me and looked out the window. There were teenagers stuck all in the branches of a banyan tree outside our house. I quickly opened the window and held out a hand to pull one into the house. The other scrambled for the roof.
I saw another further back trying to hold on, and yelled that I would bring a ladder. I ran to the garage and got one and took it outside. I looked up into the tree and saw that there were about ten to fifteen teens in various parts of this enormous tree. Some were scrambling down easily, while others were in more precarious positions. Some of the ones on the edges were being helped by others with more sure footing.
Before I could begin to help with the ladder I woke up.
......I've never been in a tornado. I don't know the true terror of being in one. I only know what I've been told of them, and my subconscious pieced together the bits of what I've heard to create the dream. I know I was relieved when I actually did wake up, because it all seemed too real.
I'm sure my dream pales in comparison to what has been happening in our nation recently. My prayers go up for those who were affected by these tragedies. I pray for protection and grace and peace and that those who have lost everything would be comforted in knowing that God did not do this TO them, but rather that He is waiting to heal their wounds and show His mighty hand of restoration.
