The Great Escape - Both Audio and Text - W-Illustration

The wind was gusting wildly and the sun had disappeared when I would head for work that rather cool and blustery day. I felt a little anxious as I backed out of the drive, so I turned on the radio, to listen, on my way. Completely unpredicted, I was stunned to see the storm driving small debris and even branches down the street, And though I almost always wore my seat belt when I drove, I paused to double check that I was buckled in my seat! Only seven blocks from home, I saw the twister coming. I’d always watched the news to see tornadoes do their thing. The air was laced with splintered wood and flying shards of glass, and - even half a mile away - I clearly heard it sing! Roaring like a freight train with an engine fueled by wind, it wove around at random as it tore our town apart. I watched in fear to see how close the monster actually was…so completely terrified, it nearly stopped my heart. Realizing just how great the danger had become, I started searching frantically for someplace in the lurch Where I might find protection, and that was when I spotted the unpretentious building that appeared to be…a church! Not a stained-glass window or a steeple to be seen…the only clue to what it was stood stoutly on her lawn. A modest sign that simply read - “Within ye shall be saved” - lured me to the safest place I’d learn I could have gone. Feeling this might be the only way to save my life - with no real way of knowing what the storm would choose to rend - I left my car and ran to where the little building stood, then burst my way inside, as I could smell the killing wind! I scanned the room and saw an open Bible on the altar, then ran to kneel before it, and began to say a prayer. I remember thinking…with the way that I’ve ignored Him…how could I be fool enough to think that God would care. I could easily hear the wind - destroying as it moved. The howling and the ripping sounds were more than I could bear. I curled up on the floor before the altar, scared to death, while just outside the remnants of my world were - in the air! Gone but seconds later, I felt the eerie silence. In just a couple minutes it had come and gone…but still - In the welcome quiet - lurked a cold, foreboding feeling, and knowing that tornadoes only came to maim…and kill, I sat there actually shaking from the brush I’d had with “Death” - and having been a witness to the tempest just outside - I would come to realize that I was truly lucky, for…had I taken refuge somewhere else, I might have died! Opening the door to what had truly been my savior…I would scan the desolation, rife with butchered trees, And find the remnants of my car…upside down and burning…and I, to do my penance, once again fell to my knees! I knew that I’d escaped what almost surely would have killed me…and understood that I had found for what so many search. The majesty is meaningless. It’s prayer that saves our souls…and I am living proof you can be saved - within the church.