Where's Waldo?

Hey, remember the "Where's Waldo" books? When Waldo first appeared on the scene, everybody thought it was fun to try to pick out the weird guy in the striped shirt in a crowd, in a zoo, in a shopping mall, in an airport...in about a thousand different scenarios. But then after a while...Waldo went AWOL and nobody could seem to find him any longer. I think we all just got fed up with trying to find him everywhere & not to mention the eye-strain and stress it caused us when he was nowhere to be found! That darned Waldo!

Well, I have a new craze for you...it's called where's the Oldsmobile? All you have to do is look at the photos posted below and try to spy where my Olds is located amongst the mess of the tree that fell upon it last night.

No kidding! Last night between 10:30 and 11:00 pm I was chillin on the couch watching a Lifetime movie with my pooch, listening to the rain as it fell hard on the roof [oh and watching it too, my roof leaks when it rains hard - gotta get that fixed soon!] the rain let up, a few minutes of silence went by and then outa nowhere we heard it...thump, thump, THUD! And then the electricity went out followed by silence & darkness.

My first thought was "oh no, terrorist attack!" [no kidding, that's what actually crossed my mind, funny isn't it!]then my 2nd thought was "oh no, I'm being robbed!" [thought the bad guys had cut my power and were about to cut a hole in my roof & repel downwards to steal all of my millions (cue Mission Impossible theme here) - well, maybe not millions...but the last $5 I had in my pocket, anyway!] And then it hit me - THE BIG TREE IN MY FRONT YARD!

I then envisioned downed power lines, sparks igniting the gas tank of my car, a horrific explosion...well, you get the picture. [oh & did I say that I was watching TV, maybe too much TV!]

Long story even longer...stumbled through the house in the dark, called my neighbors, called my mom, called 9-1-1 and the search & rescue [for my car, that is] began. The emergency crews came out really fast and had everything under control within a matter of minutes & the electricity back on in under an hour. Thankfully nobody was injured [although I was not real popular for having caused a power outage on my block on a Saturday night, just before the evening news!] and my nice beautiful deck that my parents just built on the front of my house was still intact.

In retrospect, after laughing at myself and my weird thoughts/reaction to the whole thing, all I can say is that God is SO good! He protects us from the storm and all the dangers that come along with it. We don't have to live in fear, He protects us and gives us a peace that surpasses all understanding.

That peace can be lessend though if we play the "what if game"...

"What if" the tree had fallen hours earlier it would've possibly crushed me inside the car or the neighbor boys as they were playing in their front yard [did I mention the tree almost took out my neighbor's front porch!].

Or "what if" the tree had fallen towards my house instead of my car it would've crushed my new deck, my house and me and Molly inside on the couch watching TV.

The good news is that we don't have to play the "what if game" because God is not a God of "what ifs". He's a God whose always in control & protects those He calls His own. Yeah, I may have been a little freaked out [not to mention a little shaky as I called 9-1-1, don't even really remember what I told the Operator] but in the end I could calm down and rest in His shelter from the storm - knowing that He was in control the whole time & that He will protect me when danger comes my way. Wow!

Here's the photos, prizes will be awarded to those who discover "Where's Waldo" (a/k/a my car)even BIGGER prize for those who discover "Where's God" in all this :)

Gotta go for now, my family's coming over with a chain saw so we can cut out a path to my front door...don't think the mailman will like climbing over the downed tree to get to my mailbox tomorrow.