Tornado

Life can change in an instant. God gives us certain things to manage and control, but some things we simply cannot - a freak accident, an illness, or natural disaster. Sunday was a good reminder of that. After church Sunday, with the kids napping, Gayle and I sat down at our computers to work. With no prediction by the forecasters, or expectation on our parts that it would even rain that day, Gayle suddenly said "Holy Cow, quick look, a tornado!" Sure enough, clear as crystal, a funnel cloud was forming just miles outside of our house. The sky darkened, the temperature dropped drastically. Conditions were becoming ripe for tornados across the front range. Gayle and I literally watched with open jaws as the twister pictured above changed shapes. Here slim, slender, and pointing straight down. There, turning sideways, swelling and shortening. Then dissapating, then gathering back together. Powerful. Gayle took pictures, and we simply watched, glued with interest as to what was happening. Soon, the sirens rang, and Gayle's and my interest morphed into fear. We looked above our house at a low hanging, ominous group of clouds. Except this group of clouds wasn't moving in one direction; instead, the clouds were slowly swirling. Scary! It began to hail, and got windy. The funnel cloud in the picture ended up dissipating, and nothing ever formed all that near our house. Still, it was a reminder of how powerless we are in so many ways, how fleeting life is, how we must enjoy every moment we are given.