My journey today took me to Arkansas, which is always a beautiful drive through green rolling hills and over lazy rivers and creeks. Those all vanished during the drive this afternoon as thunderstorms hovered over the area, dumping torrential rain.
I’m thankful that Greg was driving. Visibility narrowed down to a few feet as rain pelted the car. Lightning flashed yet did nothing to provide illumination. Cars pulled over, or crawled along at greatly reduced speeds, headlights and emergency flashers on.
It’s a tense situation to drive in. And yet, surrounded by water, the world shifted and became strangely beautiful. Perhaps I’ve been watching too much Doctor Who, because the landscape took on an other world quality, familiar yet alien, dangerous and yet amazing.
As we drove between tall rocky outcroppings, where the hillsides were blasted away to create the roadway, dozens of waterfalls cascaded to the ground below. I’ve never seen so much water, moving in so many ways. We dared not stop to take better pictures, but I snapped through the rain spotted windows, trying to capture the effect.
As we left the Natural State, hours later, headed back to Joplin, we again experienced heavy rains. The sky blackened and then the clouds unburdened themselves. It is amazing to me to be out in such weather. Such spectacles, such displays of power, fill me with wonder. Not only is the world cleansed, and made fresh, the rain and rushing waters washed through my soul as well.
