A SHOCKING STORY A few weeks ago I was studying in my home office as a thunderstorm passed over. Suddenly, with an almost deafening clap of thunder a huge lightning bolt seemed to strike just outside my window in our neighbor’s back yard! I’ve never seen such an awesome display of power. It was like a 20 foot wide shaft of electricity, brilliant yellow-white. I can’t imagine how anyone could survive being struck by a blast like that. I leapt from my chair and had to walk around the room to settle my nerves. I looked out the window expecting to see some evidence of the blast, like scorched grass in my neighbor’s yard. But there was nothing. I figured that despite the bright light and noise it must have been further away and just seemed to be so close because of the enormous energy. Well, this morning I was out back working in the yard and saw our neighbor walking her dog. There’s no barrier between our yards, so I walked over to chat with her. I had noticed that the tall tree in her back yard looked diseased and was dying. So I asked her if she had noticed it. “Bill,” she said to me, “It’s not diseased. It was struck by lightning!” My mind flew back to that stormy afternoon. She told me how the lightning had come down the tree and gone into her house, lighting up the room where her son was, and burning out lights, the television set, and even the garage door opener! (In fact, as we spoke the repairman was there to install a new garage door opener.) She showed me on the tree a long vertical scar up the trunk which the lightening had torn. “Bill, the bark was all over the yard,” she said. Then she showed me a sort of trench in the earth leading away from the foot of the tree into the lawn. The electricity had actually dug up the earth like a machine. At that point I lifted my eyes toward our house and my office window. It was probably only about 30 feet away. I was shocked how little distance there was between her tree and my office window. I had been about 30 feet from a blast of energy more powerful than anything I’ve ever witnessed!
Posted on: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 02:35:49 +0000
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