Caught in a Thunderstorm

Yesterday I decided to walk to chapel for our evening service. It’s a pleasant ramble up lanes and through fields and takes about 90 minutes. I checked the forecast which said the skies would grey but would not rain. Sure enough, at 4.30pm when I set off, the sun was beginning to hide, but I trusted the weather app on my phone. No rain coat needed, no umbrella taken.

 

Suffice to say, it poured down as it thundered, about 40 minutes into the walk. I was too far on to return home, and too far from the chapel to run on. I found a concrete box-type-thing in a field and hid inside. The sheep stared at me and would have chortled had their faces allowed. The rain eased until I came to a group of trees by a farm, under which I once more took refuge. Finally, I confessed my errors to one of our deacons who kindly agreed to pick me up on the lane.

 

Human forecasts, predictions and assumptions are so often wrong. We require shelter from our own folly and optimistic decisions:

Psalm 27:5 For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock.