Without notice I experienced something I had never experienced before yesterday. I was sitting in my living room and I heard “thuds” hitting the roof of the house. I looked out the window and what looked like huge snow balls were falling from the sky. I grabbed my son and dog and we went out onto the porch, only to find it is hail and it was coming down hard and fast.

The neighbors were rushing in the rain and hail to cover their car with blankets, so we did the same for my son’s truck windshield. The strength with which the hail was falling and size of the hail was significant. We picked up some pieces out of the grass and I put them in the freezer, to remember the event.

I had never been in a hail storm before, so I was fascinated with childlike wonder at this event happening right in front of me. I knew the scriptures spoke of a storehouse for hail, but this morning as I looked it up, I was amazed at what it says, “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, or have you seen the storehouses of the hail, which I have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war?” (Job 38:22-23)

We were protecting our windshield and God was fighting a battle in our city. What war, what battle was raging in our city, while I was standing in awe of our God? I do not know, but what I do know is that the hail brought joy to me and my family. My son, once the hail stopped but rain continued, kicked off his shoes, ran into the yard and started doing gymnastics moves. He had his hands raised and his head back as the rain fell on his face.

When God is your Father, when you know His character, His nature, you do not see anything that happens as His anger, but as His love, His pleasure and His power. We rejoiced in a hail storm yesterday, and when I learned what hail is for, it just gave me more reason to lift my hands and praise the God who fights battles in my city and wins wars I do not know are even being waged. It was another day I will never forget.