By Linda Veath Cox



O Lord, You are my God; … You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat. ~ Isaiah 25:1,4 NIV




Oh no! It couldn’t be! But there it was again—the dreaded thunderclap. I sighed because I knew what that meant at my house.


Doggie drool.


That’s right. Dog spit. My terrier-mix dog is afraid of thunder. It takes only one clap—near or far—and he’s a pacing, quivering dispenser of drool. All over my floors.


Hmmm. I wonder how many times we are just like my dog. The minute a storm moves into our life, we immediately start pacing and quivering. It might be an unexpected short-lived thunderclap, like an interruption to our schedule. It could be a distant, on-going rumble such as anxiety over a relationship problem. It may even be the “shake- the-walls-of-the-house” BOOM, like the death of a loved one or a divorce or the dreaded word “cancer.”


Whatever the storm, as soon as we hear the thunder roll we start spitting out worry. Anxiety. Fear. Complaints. Anger. Unforgiveness. Criticism. We snap at someone. We growl our displeasure with the situation. We whine about the “what if’s” we are facing.


We should know better, but our “dog spit” reactions can make us forget that our faithful God is there to console, comfort, and protect us. He is …


✝ our security in a financial crisis.

✝ our comfort in the loss of a loved one.

✝ our friend when we are alone.

✝ our wisdom when faced with an agonizing decision.

✝ our healing when we are sick.

✝ our forgiveness when we sin.

✝ our hope in the face of death.

✝ our peace in any storm.


I’m not sure my dog will ever adjust to thunder, but we can. As we trust Jesus for shelter in the storm and remember that with Him in our lives all will be well, we can learn to praise Him—in spite of the thunderclaps.



Linda Cox is a regular contributor to DivineDetour. She recently retired after twenty-five years as a district office secretary for the State of Illinois. Her first loves are studying the Bible and reading, but she occasionally tries her hand at writing. Her work is published in All My Bad Habits I Learned from Grandpa (Thomas Nelson),The One-Year Life Verse Devotional (Tyndale), Life Lessons from Grandparents (Write Integrity), Love Is a Verb (a devotional from Bethany House), and Chicken Soup for the Soul’s I Can’t Believe My Dog Did That. She lives in a small town in the Midwest with the “Bone Mafia,” her two indoor/outdoor mutts.