‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house
I had baited my traps, to catch that darn mouse.
Each evening I’d loaded the traps with great care;
Each morning I’d found the bait no longer there.
Tonight I was nestled all snug in my bed.
Then I heard little mouse feet dance over my head.
He was up in the ceiling, a rat-a-tat tap;
With all of that noise, how could anyone nap?
Then out in the kitchen arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
The disciples went and woke him up, shouting, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!”
When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and the raging waves. Suddenly the storm stopped and all was calm. Then he asked them, “Where is your faith?”
The disciples were terrified and amazed. “Who is this man?” they asked each other. “When he gives a command, even the wind and waves obey him!”
—Luke 8:24–25 (NLT)See the ducks? They’re swimming on our cornfield during the 2006 flood. This scene was repeated in 2011. The banks of the Susquehanna River normally are behind that row of large treetops in the distance.
Hurricane Sandy is bearing down on the northeastern USA, bringing tree-toppling winds, unprecedented tidal surges, and inland flooding from heavy rainfall. Victims of the so-called hundred-year floods of 2006 and 2011 in New York and Pennsylvania have good cause to fear this new threat to their safety and possessions.
