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About a year ago I was driving down Rt. 58 to take my nephew for a check up at the doctor's. It had been snowing earlier in the week, but the roads were clear, except for some salt they'd placed in preparation for the next snow storm. I was hurrying along because I didn't want to be late for his appointment, and had decided not to take any of the girls with me because I didn't want to take the chance of running into bad weather with a car full of youngsters.

My mind raced with all sorts of thoughts, including the sadness of circumstances which seemed to have taken over my existence.

I kept telling the Lord that I gave Him permission to be in complete control of my life, was thanking Him for all He does. I heard Him say He was in control, and I kept talking to Him about how good it was to realize that I was NOT the one in charge. I made a bold statement of faith that day, and I suppose by what happened next, was expected to back it up with action.

I looked away from the road for but a moment. The blink of an eye: and in that blink my car began to fish-tail on DRY PAVEMENT... at forty-five miles per hour.

The car spun to the right, and I was almost over a cliff. Then to the left, and I nearly hit twenty feet of rock on the side of the mountain. It spun back and forth, doing several three-sixties, and half a dozen near misses with the cliff and the rocks.

"JESUS! JESUS! JESUS! JESUS!"

One second I was frantically scanning east (checking for traffic no less), and the next second I was facing west, absolutely amazed that no cars were coming from either way. All the while I screamed for the Lord to help me.

It was as if a tornado had come and was sucking me up into its eye.

My foot stomped the brakes so tight that I burnt rubber on the road in horrible swerving spirals, could smell the char-broiled tires... thinking at the same time that I couldn't be responsible for allowing harm to come to my nephew.

And just like that it was over.

The car came to a screeching HALT in the proper lane, facing the direction of the doctor's office.

JUST...LIKE...THAT...

I had a death grip on that steering wheel. My knuckles were white as the threatening snow. And my heart was pounding so violently I was sure I could hear it. My knees were knocking and my teeth were chattering.

"I told you I am still in control.", the Lord said.

"You didn't have to spin me in circles down the highway to prove it to me LORD."

The crazy thing is, not one single human being saw what had just happened. And even crazier than that, my nephew had been sound asleep and never WOKE UP until the car came to a complete stop.

"Aunt Jae?" I heard his little voice from the backseat.

I saw him rub his eyes in the rear view mirror. How could a kid so full of energy and opinion SLEEP through an ordeal so serious, unless there were angels in the backseat holding him?

I pulled over at the next open lot until I could gather up strength and then drove on to the appointment, the car acting kind of funny, and still smelling of burnt tire.

When I drove back toward home I searched and searched for tire marks. Not a single trace on the road. No evidence that it had ever happened, except that my brakes began to make a funny noise.

For days afterward, I was dizzy and had visions of being inside a whirlwind. It sounded like a train ripping through the side of a bridge... loud metal tearing in half... as if a tornado had literally torn my life apart. I couldn't think straight. Some would say I was suffering from post traumatic stress, but I say it was a spiritual awakening.

It took about three days for me to realize spinning around on top of a dangerous mountain, and not a scratch on us...was one of the wildest, coolest things that ever happened to me.

I hadn't thought about that scene until today when something threw me back into the eye of that same tornado. I found something that all but broke my heart.

What I saw shocked my husband, me and my three youngest children half to death. It frightened me. And when I returned home after ranting and crying and absolutely asking

"WHY GOD? WHY?"

I saw that whirlwind whipping in circles.

It was layers deep around me, and I heard that same screeching metal sound like the side of a steel barn being split down the middle. I stood inside the storm with my hands thrown up in the air just feeling so stupid. As if everything I have done to protect and raise this family has been for nothing. That storm left me helpless and alone.

But inside the eye of the storm God's hand reached out to me. He scooped me up out of my storm and held me. He didn't just gently touch me from above in the Spirit...he reached down and grabbed me up out of my hurt.

I was not the only one He took out of that earth-shaking twister.

He also plucked up my daughter, my son, my husband, and my other children.

Then my brother, and his wife and their three children.

My sister and her family.

My mom, my step-dad and my uncle...

My daughter-in-law, my "adopted" child, and then even my sister's neighbor.

He REMOVED US from harm's way and set us safely down on the outside of the storm.

And as I observed the storm from the outside, instead of it going on all around me, I heard a puff of His breath..and it blew away just like a dandelion's seeds on a windy day.

Absolutely amazing.

The trials I have faced over the last few years have been so empowering. They have given me great strength and insight. And they have made me appreciate the Lord all the more. I have drawn near unto Him due to the obstacles I am constantly sprinting over.

The most wonderful part about all the horrifying events which take place ALL AROUND ME is that it isn't ME... it is just ALL AROUND me. Thank You Lord for the faith to stand in the eye of the tornado so regularly and not try to fight my own way out. You come and rescue me every time, and make another story for me to tell.