Blessing or Bummer

Last night our area was hit with some really bad thunderstorms. They had our house rockin' and a rollin'! Well, mostly rockin'. Not much rollin'. Thankfully! This morning when I woke up and we got out the door, I was stunned to see our extremely tall oak laying on it's side, roots above ground. At first, I was bummed..almost teary eyed as I thought of the times I sat under that oak and prayed, read, or just thought. I had even taken Liam over to it before the storms moved in and we sat on a log and I sang to him. I really loved that big old tree. The boys were marveling at how huge it looked, laying there on it's side. I sat quietly and sort of cried inside. Throughout the day, when I would look out the window or think about the tree, a feeling of nostalgia would overtake me and a few times I felt an emotional lump rise up in my throat. However, about mid day, I noticed someone had posted on their social network page about the storms last night showing them God's majesty. So...that got me to thinking. I paused and silently prayed, God what do you want ME to see? I used this tree to spend time with you...What are you showing me? The answer didn't come suddenly...I actually prayed the same prayer several times during the day and spent much time just trying to listen. Then, a thought occured. It was small at first but as I allowed God's voice in, I realized exactly what he was trying to say. There was one point last night during the storms, that both of my boys were scared. VERY scared. As I said, the house was RoCKIN! The wind was blowing and the windows were popping. It was very frightening and I am not one to get scared of a storm. Josh, in an effort to comfort the boys, reminded them to pray. I held Liam on my lap and Josh had Aidan and Brit being the "big boy" was sitting in the floor. I bowed my head, more to humor the boys than to really pray...as I said, I wasn't THAT scared. I heard a slight whimper when Josh began to pray and I raised my head. My oldest son, being so brave was sitting there, tears rolling down his cheeks, trying so hard to hold back a sob. I sunk down into the floor with him and held him too and at that point, I began to pray too. I prayed God would protect our home..my boys and Josh and I. Keep us safe. If it was his will to take our house, please keep us safe in the place we were. Amen.
the tree.....
I remembered the above moment as I allowed God to speak to me. As I remembered that ever so precious moment, I realized...God had the power to take our house...to allow the winds to push our house right over, the way they did the tree...but he spared us. Our house went untouched. The tree went down. The house, where my home was located, was safe! The tree, that means NOTHING to me compared to my family went down.
Praise You God...you are so good...Thank you for pushing those strong winds past our home and onto the tree...