The winds, The Santa Ana Winds, blew four days straight. During that time the wind spread record fires in the Southern California areas. Thousands and thousands of acres burned. Over 1500 hundred houses gone. A few injuries. Not sure of any deaths. Ridiculous smoke in the air. Made an interesting effect and turned the sun red. The winds also broke trees and limbs of trees everywhere like toothpicks. Huge trees brought to the ground. God's way of letting the trees prune themselves and separating the weak from the strong.
On Saturday night I heard the winds howling outside the window and I heard the tree moaning from the strain against the relentless wind. I wondered at that moment, "If the tree breaks and lands on the car, does the car insurance pay for the damage or does the home owners insurance pay for the damage?" The thought passed and then I thought, "I guess we'll jump off that bridge if we come to it." and made a mental note that maybe we should park on the street but it wasn't a very serious mental note, more like a pencil doodle.
The next morning, Sunday, JD and I were singing a duet at church. The pastor is doing a marriage series, there was a song that was perfect for the message and it was going to require a husband and wife to sing it. As you know, JD is "Mr. Pull-it-out-of-his-butt." Therefore, we, JD and I, became the couple to sing the song. It was a nice song and fun to do. Anyway, on this rare Sunday morning the whole family and both cars were at the church all morning. When we left at 8:00 am, the tree was just fine.
When we came home at 1:00 pm, we found the tree in two. As I sat across the street and looked at what the wind had done, what God had done, I repeated the phrase, "Rarely conspicuous but always involved in the details of your life." Only God could've orchestrated such timing and perfection of a tree breaking in half. It broke on a Sunday morning that no one was home when normally we would've been. It broke when no cars were in the driveway, when normally one would've been. It broke when no person was standing in the way, when we very well could've been. It broke away from the house when it could've very well broke the other way and caused great damage. It broke away from the neighbor's cars when it could've landed on top of two cars always in the driveway next door on a Sunday morning. It landed perfectly in the driveway and not in the street. It couldn't have happened any better than if someone were to plan it's pruning. And because of the damage everywhere in the city, a tree surgeon was not available until Tuesay. Therefore, we were forced to park in the street. Not in the picture is the pruning that continued and another very large limb broke the next night. Our cars, of course, were parked across the street. Remarkable. Truly.
