ELIZABETH LEARNS ABOUT TORNADOS

Mom pulled up to the curb to leave Elizabeth and Jenny at their kindergarten.  “Have a fun day, sweeties,” she called as they went to join their classmates.

Elizabeth played in Mrs. Lloyd’s four-year old class until circle time.

“Children, today we are going to do something very important.  Do you remember our fire drill and how well our class did?”

Elizabeth remembered lining up, walking outside for a few minutes and seeing the big, red fire engines.  She was going to like whatever was coming.

“Today our drill is for tornados.”

What’s a tomato drill?” Toby asked.  The class laughed.

“Now children”, Mrs. Lloyd quieted them.  A tornado is a large storm.  The winds with this storm are so strong that it can sometimes blow down trees and houses.  When it comes, in order to be safe, we have a special place to go.  What will happen first is that we’ll hear a loud horn blast three times.  One…two…three.”

Elizabeth held up three fingers to show what a good listener she was.

“Very good,” Mrs. Lloyd continued.  “When this happens we will quickly stop whatever we are doing and form a line at the door.  We will WALK down the hall to the girls’ bathroom…”

“What about the boys?”  Toby forgot to raise his hand again.

“Toby, this is a special time and both girls and boys will follow me QUIETLY into the girls room.”

A few children giggled.

“It is VERY important to stay quiet and obey immediately for our practice.  Let’s practice now how to squat.  Bend all the way down and tuck your head down as far as you can get.  Let’s try it.”

Elizabeth bent down and tucked.  It felt funny.  She wondered if Jenny’s five-year old class was doing funny exercises too.

“Excellent!  Now, when the drill is over, we’ll come back to class and continue with what we left.  Any questions?”

Molly raised her hand.  “Mrs. Lewis, why do we go to the bathroom.  We can’t we play squatting in our own room?”

“Well, Molly, we have so many windows in here.  The winds would be very strong.  So we need to be on the inside of the building in a room with no windows.  Anything else?”

“When can we paint?” Toby was getting wiggly.

“Right now,” Mrs. Lewis smiled.

Jenny’s class was just finishing juice time when she heard three loud blasts from a strange sounding horn.

“Let’s line up,” Mrs. Pate spoke firmly.  Jenny remembered circle time this morning.  She wondered if she’d see her sister during this drill as she had at the fire drill.

As Jenny walked in line to the music room, which was their safe place, she noticed Henry looked scared.  She wanted to ask him what was wrong but remembered this mornings talk:

“Move quickly, stay quiet and follow me,” Mrs. Pate had repeated this more than once.  As they squatted, Jenny heard him begin to softly sob.

“Mommy, Mommy!”

A long blast told them all was safe and the drill was over.

Back in the room Mrs. Pate was beaming.  “You all did so well.  I’m really so very proud of…why Henry, dear, what is wrong?”

“I don’t want the storm to blow me away!  I want my Mommy!”

“Dearest, we are safe now.  Look outside, see that sun?”  Class, put on your sweaters and let’s have an extra play time!  Okay, Henry?”

Henry didn’t even stop to answer.  He was too busy zipping up his parker.

“Hey kiddos!” Mom was smiling as Jenny and Elizabeth got into the car.  “who’d like to run out to Ollie’s Pizza for lunch?”

“Yipee!” both girls agreed.

While waiting or the pizza, Jenny and Elizabeth told Mom about the drill.

“Mom,” Jenny was serious, “where do we squat at home?”

“Oh, I guess in Elizabeth’s bedroom would be best.  Would you like to practice when we get home?”

“Well, ‘nados don’t come to houses, just schools,” Elizabeth said.  She was sipping an orange soda and looked funny with an orange mustache.

“Sweetie, they do sometimes come to houses.  Remember those clothes and toys we gathered to take to church?”

“The ones they mailed down to Florida?”

“Yes.  They were for people whose houses were destroyed from a tornado there not too long ago.  You were both so sweet to share your things.”

“Who will share with us?” Jenny looked scared.  “I don’t want my Sandy Baby and Mouse to blow away!”

“And my new red jacket!” Elizabeth agreed.

“Now girls, we have lived here all our lives and never once have we been in a tornado, right?”

“Well…”
“Jenny, Elizabeth, God has promised that He will never leave us.  Does He break promises?”

“No,” they both answered.

“And God wants what is best for us, right?”

“But why do SOME people get tornados at THEIR houses?” Elizabeth looked worried again.  The waitress brought their pizza.  It was pepperoni with extra cheese.

“Well,” said Mom, “we don’t understand everything.  But in everything we can KNOW that God has a reason.  That’s called trust:  knowing without understanding.”

“Huh?” Elizabeth managed just before biting into a mouthful of pie.

“Honey, when you were a baby, you had to have shots.  You didn’t understand…it just hurt to you.  I held you still so that the nurse could give you those shots.  You looked at me as if to say, “Mommy, how could you hurt me?”  You didn’t understand.  But without those shots, you could have become very, very sick.  So I let you hurt for a few minutes to keep you safe for a long time.  See?”

“I get it,” Jenny was excited.  “God has a new house to give those people so He just blew the old one out of the way?”

“Is that like our memory verse, Mom, Romans 8…Romans 8…”

“Romans 8”28,” Elizabeth proudly cited:  “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God.”  (Romans 8:28a KJV)

“Super!  Hey kids, one slice left.  Any takers?”

“ME!” both kids happily chimed in.

“Okay, okay, you guys, let’s split it.”

“Hey, Mom, why three pieces?  There’s just two of us.”

“Oh, well.  Let’s just say all this tornado talk has got Mom pretty hungry too.”

As the waitress came over to take the pan, everyone wiped their faces.  Elizabeth thought, “I don’t understand lots of stuff about today.  Just that whatever it all means, God will take care of me.  And so will my mom.”