Bricks & Mortar

Seaside Cottage
8x8
Oil on Canvas Panel
on sale at
Blue Giraffe
Watercolor, Florida
850-231-5112
Sold

I am so glad you haven't forgotten my address! It's been too long since we last visited. I have an amazing story to tell so come on in and make yourself comfortable. This past week I was wishing I was in this little seaside cottage. Instead I was with my husband and children in North Alabama playing in the Alabama High School Association state tennis tournament. The tournament was scheduled for April 26 & 27 a Tues. and a Wed. We arrived Monday night to check in our hotels and practice a little tennis at the Pointe Mallard Tennis Facility. The director asked teams to report at the courts on Tues. morning for play at 8:00 sharp. We arrived only to play a little tennis and we had a rain delay until 1:00 in the afternoon. We resumed play and we played until midnight because we had lost so much time and were anticipating a little bad weather on Wed. Truly exhausted we made it back to the hotel and had not been asleep long before we were awakened by sirens signaling a tornado warning. Having been through a million warnings I must admit my husband and I did not race for the hallway or basement, instead turned on the television to see if it was really near us or not. My husband (who wishes he was a weather man) said,"Baby get your stuff we are heading downstairs for  this one."That was at 5:00am and we barely left the hallway until 8:00 pm. We held our breath for about 11 warnings. I have never experienced wind or rain quite like that! We sat in the hall of a hotel with the boys and girls tennis teams a couple of coaches and a few other parents. We had no power and very little cell service. We of course had granola bars and gatorade, but nobody planned for meals or flash lights or anything of that nature. My husband and I went out to find some food and it was as if we were in a ghost town. Nothing was open. The moon was no where to be found and it was pitch black dark and eerily quiet. We charged a phone and an I pad in the car just in time to see news of utter destruction all around us. I have to say it was a sobering experience to know that our lives had been spared that day and yet neighbors above us and below us did not survive the deadly twisters. We finally made it home on thursday night in bumper to bumper traffic and extensive lines at gas pumps(once we found gas) . The devastation that we witnessed on the drive home was not like anything I had ever seen. Homes gone, trees gone, homes crushed, light poles bent like toothpicks. In some places there was nothing left but foundations and bare ground. It makes a decision like what countertop to put in your dream home meaningless. Today I am safe at home with my family. Humbled and thankful. My heart aches as I watch the news of families who have lost all they had including their family.     " Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God" Ps.20:7. This verse echoes in my mind as I have heard story after story of people clinging to the strength and safety of a basement or bathtub. My question today is are you trusting in bricks and mortar or are you trusting in the Lord God Almighty?