I imagine all children have a fear of thunder or lightning to some degree and it is dependent upon the reactions of those around us. We are like blank pages from the time we are born and are constantly absorbing information on a daily basis. Everything is new to us. Everything we see, hear or experience. There is so much that we are taking in that we have to relate to those around us to decide whether this is something interesting, funny or fearful. The older we get, the more information we absorb and the more we can interact as opposed to just watching.
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The first people we are around (usually) are our parents, siblings, and close friends and it is those interactions that are the basis of who we are and what we believe. I don’t remember much before the age of four and a half, but then psychology teaches that none of us retain much before then. It is only when we have had a traumatic experience of some kind that something will linger with us for years.
In my case, my mother left my younger brother Frank and me with her older sister Geneva, while she went to the hospital for the birth of our brother Ron. After she came home, we continued to stay at Aunt Geneva’s for another two weeks until my mother felt well enough to take on all three of us (a far cry from today, where a woman delivers her baby one day and goes home the next).
We were there for the month of June – when most of our thunderstorms begin. Mom and Aunt Geneva’s brother Harold got hit by lightning (and lived to tell about it), but it left a raging fear of thunder and lightning in Geneva. So, whenever a storm arose, Aunt Geneva would unplug everything, pull down the dark green shades and put Frank and me to bed. She pulled the covers over our heads and told us to stay there until the storm was over. Then…… she got in a tiny closet and remained there until the storm was gone.
The minute the covers were over Frank’s head, he went immediately to sleep and, therefore, never remembered there was a storm, let alone become afraid of it. I, however, never went to sleep. I could hear the rain beating on the tin roof, the thunder rumbling and getting louder and louder, and the lightning lighting up the outdoors despite the pulled shades. I guess, in my young mind, I figured if Aunt Geneva who was an adult was afraid of storms, I should be too. And I was. The older I got, the more my fear grew.
I was terrified to be away from home when a storm came up, particularly if I were driving. I would clutch the steering wheel until my knuckles turned white. The thunder was bad, but add the lightning and I was a basketcase. I used to pray my way home, “Dear Lord, get me home safely, don’t let me have an accident, please be with me.”
The more I read the Bible and studied, the more I learned that God loved us. My mother used to tell us to think of thunder as angels in heaven bowling and that helped. I used this same illustration with my son Brian and I have used it in my book GOD IS IN THE RAIN.
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When I was studying Moses, I remember him telling God that he would like to see him face to face. God told him that would not be possible, but for him to stand in the cleft of a rock and Moses could watch Him as He went past. God’s glory was so great that when Moses came down off the mountain his face shown with God’s glory. I was on my way home one evening when a storm came up. In this case, I saw lightning in the distance and it came to me – that is only a glimpse of God’s glory. When I began to think about lightning that way, my fear gave way to admiration.
I hope that as children learn about weather, they learn to respect the power of storms and lightning. They learn what to do and what not to do and how to stay safe.
God is in The Rain 
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