Norwegian Farmer’s Son…March 27th

March 27th…“WHAT TYPES OF WORDS DID YOUR PARENTS USE TO TRY TO CALM YOUR YOUNG FEARS?”

Within the thunder’s cacophony of violent volume would appear fierce flashes of lightning in excruciating brilliance, forcing these little eyes of mine to snap closed in absolute fear!!!!

Only the Lord, Himself, knew why the farmlands of Minnesota seemed to be a magnet for powerful weather of all sorts; summer time, especially!!  When dark cloud rumblings started in the distance, my little heart began to go pitter patter for anticipating what would soon be upon us and right over our heads.  Sure enough, what started as a distant rumble eventually reached its crescendo with explosions right over our farm home that rivaled any artillery of any army on the face of the earth.

With the wisdom of their many years on earth, my dear parents tried to communicate, to this terrified little toddler, in terms that might help a tiny boy’s finite mind comprehend the happenings just outside our farm home’s walls.

By this time of my young life, I had experienced some fun times at our local bowling alley and remembered the loud sound of a STRIKE against the bowling pins.  As a result, I could almost understand when Mom or Dad would try to calm me by saying, “Don’t worry, Elliott, that sound you hear is just God and His angels bowling in Heaven and God just got a STRIKE!!!”.  

To help quell my fears of the lightning, during these fear episodes, our parents brought up the family times of when numerous aunts or uncles would bring out their old flash cameras that used these giant bulbs that lit up the room when that shutter button was pressed in order to take a photograph.  As the ebony night around us was charged to daylight in a split second of lightning, Mom or Dad would say, “Relax, Elliott, that’s just God taking a photograph outside with His GIANT flash camera!!!”.  To this day, I’m grateful for the gentle ways that were employed by our parents to quiet the fears of this Norwegian Farmer’s Son.