A high school classmate of mine, Nate Tannenbaum, is a TV weatherman in Las Vegas, a real treat for the residents of that area, I am absolutely, positively sure. I follow Nate on social media and laughed out loud at something he included in his weathercast as Hurricane Florence was bearing down on the Southeast coast.
Not because hurricanes are funny, because they certainly aren’t, but because people are funny and humor can be found in almost any situation if we look hard enough. Nate found that humor on the shelves of a grocery store somewhere in the Carolinas.
We all know how it goes around here when snowstorms or hurricanes are predicted. We descend upon grocery stores like starving lions on a herd of wildebeest. It always reminds me of an old TV gameshow called “Supermarket Sweep” that featured contestants racing through the aisles of a grocery store, frantically trying to sling the most expensive items into their carts before time expired. That’s us.
On his weathercast, Nate showed a photo taken in a Carolina store a few days before Florence hit. All the shelves were completely barren, except for one that was still fully stocked—the one containing organic, “healthy” foods. The caption on the photo read, “Even with a hurricane coming, people would rather starve than eat vegan.”
I both laughed and felt vindicated because I sometimes feel like I’m alone in the food wilderness, happily eating my carbs and preaching “moderation in all things” to friends who are always trying the latest maybe-healthier diet. When a hurricane is on our doorstep, apparently most of us aren’t so interested in being organic herbivores. I know I’d sure hate to eat tofu and kale for my last meal.
I didn’t plunder the grocery store to prep for Florence’s arrival, but we did prepare for our power to go out, since that routinely happens if even a squirrel sneezes on our lines. The Weather Channel’s hurricane path models, the ones that look like spaghetti noodles, had most of the noodles going right through our living room, so we filled up all kinds of things with water and lugged our two little generators up from the barn to keep our fridge and freezer going.
I also strategized about where I might watch the Auburn-LSU football game if our power went out. One must have one’s priorities sorted out when disaster approaches. (By the end of that hideous game, I was very sorry our power had stayed on.)
Watching all the media coverage ahead of Florence’s arrival, I was struck by how seriously we take impending weather events, but how little most folks think about a much bigger event that could truly be imminent.
The Bible describes a time called the “Great Tribulation” that will include natural and supernatural disasters unlike any the world has ever known. Some believe everyone alive at that time will have to endure this outpouring of God’s wrath, but I’m happily and staunchly in the theological camp that believes Christ-followers will be taken out of this world before it begins.
I’m not planning to parade up and down Main Street wearing a sandwich board with “Turn or burn!” painted on it, although you may feel this column is just as weird. But if the Bible is true, the Great Tribulation will happen, and if there’s even a chance it might happen in our lifetimes, we need to prepare.
Loading up on groceries won’t help. Only faith in Jesus Christ can.
“For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ … .” – 1 Thessalonians 5:9
“Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near.” – Isaiah 55:6