Editor, Gazette-Journal:

I read with interest last week’s editorial “There but for the Grace of God …” regarding the weather system Florence that, for the most part, missed Virginia and devastated North Carolina. The writer said “that Mother Nature is fickle” as if Mother Nature has a mind and can decide which location to destroy and which one to miss. 

The Bible gives us a better understanding of storms and what makes them act “fickle.” In the Gospels, Jesus and his disciples were in a boat during a storm, Jesus rebuked the storm and it quieted down. Also in the Gospels, Jesus said that his disciples would do greater works than Him because He was going back to Father God. 

Insurance companies have used the term “acts of God” to describe terrible storms. But in the Bible James says “every good and perfect gift” comes from God. My experience is that these storms are surely not good or perfect.

Regarding Florence, I know I prayed, not asking God to spare us, but to Florence commanding it to be peaceful, rebuking it like Jesus did. I know there were many others praying similarly. I have heard that the 700 Club in Virginia Beach has done that in the past. The storm went from a category 4 to a 2, then the Weather Channel said it would return to a 4, but did not. It finally reduced to a 1 before landing. The map I saw showed the storm’s damage going all around Virginia, not hurting us.

My prayer intent was that the storm die and hurt no one. Obviously, that did not happen. But it did not hurt Virginia much. So I know that prayer worked. I encourage readers to pray, rebuking future storms (wind, ice, etc.) because it isn’t fickle Mother Nature or God that spares some and destroys others; it is our prayers of faith in what Jesus already did for us on the cross that will bring that destruction to its knees.

Tim Sadler

Cobbs Creek, Va.