Faith May Bring a Hailstorm

It is mind-boggling to find ourselves, in such a short time, in the middle of an apocalyptic epidemic which makes our scariest Sci-Fi movies seem like fairy tales.

In my memory of stories from parents and grandparents, I never recall anything that resembled this situation we are in currently, except maybe the Spanish flu. At least I have surmised that is the pandemic that my husband Joe’s grandmother and family told about—and her own experience of it. In the early 1900s, when she was a young woman courageously nursing others who were sick with the deadly flu, she eventually caught it.

Very quickly, she reached the verge of death with high fever, in a time when iceboxes held one large block of ice—hardly enough for wrapping a person to bring the temperature down. As the family gathered around, wringing hands, crying in terror and praying frantically, a furious storm arose with hail the size of golf balls. Family members quickly brought pots outside and gathered hailstones as fast as they could. They put her on the kitchen table, covered her with a sheet, wrapped her in the ice, and prayed.

She was pretty much in a coma when the hailstorm came, so she was surprised to wake up freezing and wet. But, wake up she did, to much excitement and praise to the Lord. She lived to be 94, and she was everlastingly grateful. She served the Lord faithfully before and ever after, teaching Sunday School for 67 years!

Whether the ice did the trick or even was coincidental is not the point. The experience may not meet today’s medical and scientific understandings. The point is that her family prayed and a turning point came, to which they gave God the glory.

There is a passage in Revelation that assures us that powerful things can happen when people pray—Revelation 8:1-5 (NIV). This is a vision that the Apostle John saw of Heaven. Don’t be afraid of reading Revelation. To those to whom it was first given, it was good news! They were going through terrible times, and it promised that God was in charge! See what it tells us about what happens when we pray:

And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.  Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all God’s people, on the golden altar in front of the throne. The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God’s people, went up before God from the angel’s hand. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.

This scripture portrays powerful things happening as a result of the prayers of God’s people being offered to Him. Joe’s grandmother’s experience is a true story and a true reminder that God is able! We just need to hold on by faith! Never give up on God. Trust Him in the face of the worst fears you face, and receive life’s blessings as the gifts that they are. Who knows, your faith may bring a hailstorm—and it may be just what you need!

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Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®
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