A young lad named Edward, just a toddler, grew up in sunny California and, at 2 years old, had seen little rain. While visiting his grandparents in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, one afternoon a rainstorm broke out. Delighted, he ran to the porch and squealed and giggled as rain poured and a huge clap of thunder—well, thundered.

Pointing to the sky, he called out, “Thunder again.” But only the rain tapped on the roof. He turned to his grandmother and asked her to bring the thunder again. She told him she couldn’t. So he bellowed at the sky once more.

“Edward,” she said, “only Jesus can make it thunder.”

He raised his arms to the sky and hollered, “Jesus, make it thunder again.”

And a boom of thunder came rolling over those mountains, louder than any his family ever heard. *

I had determined I wanted to live this year (And, why not from now on, really?) in eager anticipation of what God would accomplish and how he’d bring good out of what appears to me as sad or disappointing. I call it: living on tip-toes. And now I have my role model.

[Story told on January 3, 2016, by Johnnie Morris about his own son. Johnnie’s message can be heard here for the next 4-6 weeks.]