Hanna

We went to the beach on Labour Day. The first Monday of September is known as America's bank holiday, and marks the unofficial end of the summer. Despite that it was still in the mid eighties today and will be hotter tomorrow. But there's something brewing. Yesterday the currents in the sea were incredible. If you waded out above the knee and sat down you'd be dragged all over the place as the tide. This was because of Hurricane Hanna.

At the moment Hanna is hanging around off the west of Cuba, and is slated to make landfall somewhere in South Carolina on Thursday night, and then swing upwards over the weekend to give us some pretty heavy rain. Should do. It's very hard to predict, at this point, where hurricanes are going to end up, so it could just as easily make landfall around here, which is mostly below sea level.

I'm a but nervous. No one else seems to be. It's not like the sword of Damocles is hanging over us, or at least it doesn't feel like it. People are going to breakfast, going to school, working, marrying and generally enjoying the pace of life in easter North Carolina, with little regard to the fact on friday we might all be sleeping in a school hall in Raleigh with most of our possessions spread across the 252.

It draws an interesting parallel in my mind with the second coming of Christ. Jesus told His disciples that just before He returns people will be living the way they always have been, just like they were before the flood. People will poke fun at those who believe Christ is returning just as the poked fun at the family who built a boat in the desert. And even Christians don't know the time or date.

Nevertheless as Friday nears, and the storm with it, we'll all pay close attention to the weather channel and make our plans, pack our bags and plan our route. We know when it's going to come. But we don't know when Jesus will return. So we need to pay much closer attention to the Word, to the Holy Spirit and to preachers than we currently pay to the weather channel. And we must stay on our guard, as for the storm, so for the Lord.

(and even if we do get hit, i could liveblog a hurricane, which might be pretty neat)