Message in the Storm

By Sheila Kindred

(Based on a true story)

For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts (2 Cor. 4:6).

“It’s starting to cloud up,” Mom said. “We got back to the car just in time.”

Meg looked back at the canyon road growing smaller in the distance. From the freeway the beautiful red-rock cliffs were completely hidden by the mountains. People could drive by and not even know they were there. But Meg knew they were there. They had taken a detour up that way so her dad and her uncle could go for a walk in the peaceful valley.

“They need some alone time,” Mom had explained.

Meg understood. They had just come from Grandpa Ted’s funeral service. Meg loved her grandpa and missed him, and she knew her dad and her uncle missed him even more.

Their time in the pleasant canyon was short. Now they were driving on the freeway again, with Uncle Evan in his van a few miles ahead. Clouds blocked the sun and Meg’s heart grew heavy as she thought about Grandpa.

Meg remembered someone at the funeral saying that Grandpa had gone ahead to a beautiful spirit world and was waiting for them there. But that place seemed too far away, especially since Grandma Iris needed Grandpa here to take care of her. Grandma was sick and frail. How was Grandma going to make it on her own?

Meg blinked back her tears just as raindrops poured down the car window. “The sky is crying too,” Meg thought.

“What is that?” Mom sounded worried.

“A very concentrated storm,” Dad answered, slowing the car slightly.

Meg looked up and saw a thick wall of dark clouds that completely hid the road ahead.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Mom said. “I wonder what it’s like inside.”

“We’ll soon find out,” Dad said.

As soon as the car entered the cloud, it got so dark that Dad turned on the car headlights. The rain turned to hail that angrily pelted the car and danced on the road. It was much colder now.

Suddenly, the cell phone rang. Mom answered it, and Meg could hear Uncle Evan’s voice on the other end.

“Where are you?” he asked.

“We just entered the storm,” Mom said.

“Slow down,” Uncle Evan warned. “It’s snowing where I am, and the road is very slippery. If you don’t slow down you might slide off the road.”

Dad immediately slowed the car just as snowflakes filled the air. They drove past several cars that had slid off the road, but Dad managed to keep the car moving safely. After several more minutes the phone rang again.

“We’re out,” Uncle Evan said, relief in his voice. “The end of the storm is just ahead. Keep going and you’ll make it.”

Sure enough, it wasn’t long before the snow stopped, the clouds thinned, and darkness turned into light.

“Amazing!” Mom said as she and Meg turned to look at the solid black clouds behind them.

“Look at that,” Dad said, pointing to the right. “Let me pull over so you can see.”

Dad drove onto a side road and stopped. Meg and her parents got out of the car and looked up into the sky. Overhead they saw not one, not two, but three rainbows.

“A triple rainbow!” Meg gasped. “It’s beautiful.”

“Wow,” Mom breathed. “This must be our reward for making it through the storm.”

“Yes,” Dad said, smiling. “It’s proof that at the end of life, with all its difficulties, there really is a heaven.”

“As long as we do the things that keep us safely on the right road,” Mom added.

“But, Mom, if Uncle Evan hadn’t called to warn us, we might not have been safe,” Meg pointed out. “We might still be back there, stuck in the storm.”

“That’s very true,” Dad agreed. “So you see, it pays to listen to an older brother who has traveled the road ahead. Especially when he warns you of danger. No matter how dark the storm, he’ll help you get through it.”

Meg smiled. Her heart felt as light as the sunshine now filling the sky. She realized Grandma was not alone. Grandma had the Savior, Jesus Christ, to guide her. And when Grandma left the storms of life behind, she would see Grandpa waiting for her in a place even more beautiful than triple rainbows.

[Path That Leads to Happiness]

“There is a way out of the ‘mists of darkness’ (1 Ne. 12:17) and onto the path that leads to happiness in this life and eternal life in the world to come.”
Elder Robert D. Hales of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, “Out of Darkness into His Marvelous Light,” Ensign, May 2002, 71.

Illustrated by Don Seegmiller