All Creation Groans

It looks as though Ike is quieting down and the gulf is the clearest it has been for a couple of weeks now. The first two summers we were here in New Orleans, we experienced very quiet hurricane seasons. This year, however, has been a doozy.

We experienced Gustav as evacuees, glued to the weather channel at grandma’s house, wondering what it was really like at home. We experienced Ike – very mildly in comparison to Texan folk, as we were on the extreme eastern edge and a little inland – right at home, still closely watching the weather channel, wondering what was really going on as it approached and made landfall, but able to experience for ourselves what was happening at our own home.

It was crazy to be this far away and feeling the effects of the same storm that was ravaging Galveston and Houston – at the same time. Lake Pontchartrain flooded nearly as much as it did with Gustav. We are about a ½ mile north of the shore, and it flooded probably about a ¼ mile inland. We were some of those folks that irritate the cops, driving around to see the sights last night. For awhile we had sustained winds in the 30’s with gusts in the 50’s, and some pretty heavy rainstorms came through in the outer bands. Gustav knocked a large branch onto our (already quite decrepid, waiting for us to just take the time to take it to the curb) picnic table. It started the final demolition process, but nothing that mattered was damaged. Ike knocked another large branch down. We found it in the front yard, reaching into the driveway, directly beneath our powerlines, just a few feet from the van.

We have no idea how it didn’t knock the power out or crush the van, but we’re thankful it didn’t! The brothers were amazed at how strong their Daddy is as they watched (from a distance, of course!) him chop the tree up with an axe and a machete and then” helped” him carry the pieces to the curb. (And by “pieces”, I mean mostly acorns.)

The really interesting thing was the animals. Yesterday morning, we discovered two raccoons helping themselves to the sunflower seeds in our birdfeeder. We have one that comes around from time to time (we’ve named her Rascal), but we’ve never seen two. They were much less skiddish than usual, and came back several times during the day. We even saw them checking us out from over the fence a few times. The brothers thought that was pretty cool.

Later in the evening, Micah was fascinated with a tree frog who had found some shelter on our window.

But the craziest thing was this morning. It was just beginning to get light outside when the kids started waking up. I was sitting on the couch cuddling with Micah, looking out the window to see if Rascal and her friend were around, when I saw a woodpecker perched on the back fence. I watched it for a few minutes, turned my attention to Micah, and when I looked up again, it was still there. I tried to take a picture of it, but it was still too dark and far away to see much.

A few minutes later, Micah needed to “go tee tee in the outside.” I went to open the door for him, and saw that the woodpecker was still there. It was lighter outside now, and I could tell that the wind was ruffling his feathers a little bit. I figured he was hurt and there was a chance he wouldn’t fly away when we went out, so I grabbed the camera. I ventured closer, and saw that he was at kind of a weird angle, and that what I thought was a reddish area on his wing was actually large, bright red hole. “Oh my goodness,” I thought, “that poor woodpecker got blown into the fence by the wind, got his beak stuck, and something (maybe one of the raccoons) has already gotten it.”

I ventured closer, morbid curiosity getting the best of me, and I discovered that my poor woodpecker was actually a cluster of leaves with some bright red berries in the middle. I felt so dumb!

Yes, please laugh. (Bret certainly did!) I share not to make light of the destruction and fear that Ike has caused, but to point out how amazing nature can be. We heard that at one point, 80% of the gulf was taken up by Hurricane Ike. Bret has also talked about how this is also a reminder of the way that Romans says that “all creation is groaning in anticipation” of God reconciling all things to himself. As this storm approached, we saw that it was not only people who were affected, but the plants and animals were obviously feeling it, as well…and regardless of what else is going on, you have to laugh at a crazy, tired mom who is so intently looking for something interesting that she convinces herself that some leaves are a poor injured woodpecker…

(Sorry for the poor picture quality in a few of these. My camera finally got dropped one too many times and is being repaired. I should get it back in a couple of weeks. Until then, I’m taking pictures with my six-year-old video camera – and if Bret’s around I’m getting him to take some with his phone…)