What a Day!

It happened quite unexpectedly. I was in a conference with a group of Adventist clergy from all across the state. It was mid-afternoon, about 3:15 p.m. or so. The Vice-president for Administration for the Conference, Ed Keyes, was at the podium beginning the final thoughts leading to the final words by the President. People were sitting at their tables. Most were listening. Some were dozing. Others were playing Solitaire on the laptop computers. I was focused on every last word emanating from his lips. Of course that may have been because I was sitting next to the president, who was preparing to take his place behind the pulpit.

All of a sudden—and I mean all of a sudden; it sounded like the building was being sprayed with gun fire by a large mortar machine gun. At first there was confusion. Perhaps the noise was due to the thunder from an oncoming storm cell. But the thunder did not stop. There were flashes of lighting and loud thunderclaps, for certain, but I doubt they alone would have stopped the meeting as this did. The noise was deafening. Suddenly some of the pastors began standing on the chairs against the back wall to look out the windows which were seven feet off the floor. It is then that I saw what appeared to be hail falling from the sky. I surmised that the hail was causing the noise due to the rate at which it was falling, but I doubt the meeting would have come to a standstill solely over an intense hailstorm.

Then I saw it. And I saw it again. Perhaps I should say I saw “them.” At first I couldn’t believe it. I had to get a better look. All the chairs against the back wall were already occupied by pastors staring at the sight taking place outside the back window. I scurried out of the room in search of a better vantage point. I found myself looking out the front glass entrance to the conference office—together with twenty or so other people. It was amazing, especially to a native Californian, city-dweller like me. I had only seen this on the evening news, where pictures of hailstorms from the Panhandle of Texas or another Midwest enclave were beamed into my living room. But now I was looking at this scene in true living color. The landscape outside the conference office was being peppered with hail stones at a rate I had never witnessed before. Some of the stones were quite large. It would not be an exaggeration to say they were golf ball-sized hail stones. And they were coming down with incredible force!

The room almost emptied as attendees went to see the downpour or to survey the damage to the autos not parked under the limited covered parking. It took a while for the meeting to come back to order. The conversations gravitated mostly around the golf-sized hail stones. There was a buzz in the room. The hailstorm even garnered a reference during the closing prayer. It’s amazing how quickly things can turn. Many of those present will remember the event for a long time, some because their automobiles were dinged many times or their windshields were cracked. What a day!

What a day, indeed, when earth’s history will suddenly come to close. I have often wondered how such an event will sneak up on people. But it will, just like we were surprised but the intensity of the storm, although we had seen the clouds, and the wind, and the warning signals in the distance. But we had seen such signs and scenes many times before and nothing like this ever happened. “And so it shall be at the coming of the Son of Man….” What a Day!