Lightning does strike twice

Yesterday an afternoon thunderstorm came up and lightning hit a tree about 150 feet from my house. The dazzling white flash of the lightning flooded my living room and was amazing in its brilliance. It emitted an extremely loud BANG! And the impact was so jarring that it could be felt in the chair in which I was sitting. It was very powerful.

My terrorized wife screeched, “BOB” at the top of her lungs as though I had something to do with it. The computer started wailing, the lights flickered and the television went off. It was an exciting moment to say the least.

This made me think of Roy Sullivan. In case you did not know it, Roy Sullivan is in the Guinness book of world records for being hit by lightening more than any other human being. He was hit an amazing seven times and survived all of them. He was a park ranger in Virginia. His toenail was knocked off when struck in the leg in one strike, he was hit in the head and his hair caught on fire on two different occasions, it injured his ankle on another, but in spite of all of it he lived through it. I saw him on television one time and he had his park ranger hat with him and it had a hole burned in it about the size of one’s fist where lightning had blown through it.

Not surprisingly no one wanted to be around Roy when a storm came up and he would go out on the porch and sit by himself away from anyone else in his family. He claimed that the last time that he got hit, he saw a cloud come up and he started running away from it and he swore that it chased him down.

Is that interesting or what? What do you suppose God, who sees everything, thought about this? What do you think Roy thought about it? What would you think about it if it happened to you?

Hmmm I don’t know what to make of it. It would be terrifying to be hit by lightning one time, but “SEVEN” times. I saw him on the Johnny Carson show on black and white TV way back in the 70’s, (the best I can remember), and he was just laughing about it.

The Bible tells us that today we see dimly as though looking at a dirty mirror, but one day we will see clearly and understand. One of the things that weighs heavily on my mind and I think will be one of our ultimate rewards in the next life is to attain that state of enlightenment. One day God will give us the answers to all of those difficult questions that plague us in this life serious and trivial. We will ask, “Lord, why did this or that happen, or how did you pull this off, or how does that work Lord?”

I don’t know why old Roy got hammered seven times. Perhaps the Lord just wanted to disprove the notion that lightning never strikes in the same place twice. I realize that there are important issues facing the world, but I want to understand the trivial too. I hope that I remember to ask Him about it when I am in heaven. I’m sure that throughout all of eternity I will eventually get around to asking him about Roy Sullivan’s ordeal. I suspect He will flash a wide smile on His face and tell me the most surprising of answers and we will laugh about it Maybe not, I’m sure old Roy wasn’t laughing, but nonetheless it will be interesting to understand from the Lord Himself why this occurred. Will it not?

1 Cor. 13:12
Now we see only an indistinct image in a mirror, but then we will be face to face. Now what I know is incomplete, but then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.