I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. They looked to Him and were radiant, and their faces were not ashamed. This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him, and delivers them. - Psalm 34:4-7.

Having a close encounter with a tornado is a somewhat shocking experience. It is a shock to see how close many came to death from the power of a F4 tornado. It is a shock to see the sudden destruction that a powerful tornado brought to a soundly constructed building - destroyed in a moment of time. Seeing a mobile home utterly destroyed as it was slammed into the house next to it. Seeing a large piece of tin wrapped around the top of a tree like a modern work of art.

It is somewhat troubling for us who were living in the path of this danger. It is troubling because we know that this is not the first time that a tornado has traveled this path or a very similar path. It is the fourth time in the memories of those living here that the school in Sweetwater, Oklahoma has been hit.

We were in our storm shelter in the basement of our house at least 15 minutes before the tornado arrived. There were several funnels. The strongest funnel, which hit the school (More than three million dollars in damage.), was to the west of us across the road. Another funnel touched down briefly in front of our house to hit one of our trees and then the front part of our church knocking over the steeple and damaging the front wall as it moved north ($83,000 in damage to the church.). Another funnel traveled just to the south of our house, turned the corner at the end of our fence in our backyard and moved north hitting a new oilfield building a short distance away (The path of the funnel could be seen clearly in the wheat field that we found the next day.) We could hear the roar and could feel our house shaking.

Shortly before the tornado hit, my wife and I prayed. Prayed for the safety of those in the path of the tornado. Prayed that no one would be hurt. Prayed for our own safety. Others in the path of this destruction have told us that they too were praying.

My first thoughts after seeing how close we had come and the awesome destructive force that passed our way was that we ought to move some place safe. Of course, the fact is that there is no place that is immune to disasters of one kind or another - natural or man made. God had protected us. The funnels had passed on three sides of us but we were still safe. We were delivered from the danger.

The question for all of us is where will we find our safety? Where will we put our faith? Of course, we need to take the precautions that we know to take like going to a storm shelter if one is available. But whether it is a force of nature, a criminal, or a terrorist that threatens the only real place of safety is found in the hand of God. "The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him, and delivers them.”