Hi, and thanks for stopping by my blog!

Our local newspaper ran this very headline (above) in the last couple of weeks. It got me to thinking of Chicken Little a character from early childhood Golden Books who thought ‘the sky was falling’.

Well the sky actually did fall a couple of weeks ago! But a few miles away from home. In a severe storm with gale force winds over a half hour period there occurred a dumping of several inches of hail the size of golf balls across the suburb of Bateau Bay (on the Central Coast of NSW, in the merry old land of Aus downunder!)   A beachside suburb turned white as depicted on a Christmas card! Sadly it was accompanied by significant damage, but the beautiful and unusual scenes it created sort of softened the impact.

On the lake shore of the Quiet Side that morning were the Red-necked Avocets. They are relatively new to the Quiet Side. They were happily wading in the sunshine using their bills to sweep backwards and forwards in the water to catch their food.

The storm came in quickly and caught so many of us unaware.

Pretty scary!

The lake did what it always does when storms hit stirring up angry white caps, waves and spray.

Fortunately the Quiet Side appeared to be on the edge of the storm as we only received marble sized hail for five or so minutes. The rain and wind lasted much longer.

The storm terrified the flock of Avocets. The began running along the shore looking for shelter.

Poor little guys. Even a marble-sized ball of ice coming down with any force would hurt their little heads. They could have run under the trees which would have given them some shelter. Instead they chose to stand out in the water. Lucky the hail didn’t last too long. Had they suffered the same fate as Bateau Bay did with golfball-sized hail, there could well have been fatalities.

I gave quiet praise that God spared this little flock.

It’s interesting in the significance of the storm, the damage it did and the media interest it drew, that something as simple as the welfare of these little birds was the aspect that brought to me the most attention.

It made me think of how much our God loves us.

“…not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it. And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows. (Matthew 10:29-31NLT)