Storm Tossed: A troubled woman finds peace with herself and God in the midst of life's storms. Read Online Free PDF

heart squeezed with painful longing to see and hold her precious child again. She saw Jackson’s face in her mind, his black pupils huge, love and worry etched on his tired face about his wife. She knew they both must be worried about her. Even Jackson, no matter what state their marriage was in right now.
    Jesus , she prayed as she drifted off to a restless, haunted sleep, will you please heal and restore my marriage? Will You please do a miracle in our lives? Little did Rachel know how quickly God would answer that prayer, and how.

Chapter 4: Dreams
     
    The hurricane was much bigger than they’d expected. In Panama City, there was a storm surge of 25 feet high. The whole city was destroyed, just like New Orleans, looking like an atomic bomb had hit it. Rachel heard it first, then the surge hit the house. Ocean water poured into the house, freezing cold, the force slamming her against the wall. She screamed, but nobody could hear her. She began panicking as the water filled her lungs and she couldn’t breathe. Her last thoughts were of her family and of Jesus…
    Rachel woke up, sweating heavily. Her heart was racing from the nightmare. Yet it wasn’t just a nightmare. She could hear the force of the wind outside, as if the demons of hell had been unleashed against her. She began shaking violently and praying. It sounded like the house was going to collapse from the wind and the rain pelting the roof. What if the roof tore off? What if the house fell in on her? What if the 10 feet tall steel pilings (stilts) of the beach house didn’t hold against the force of the hurricane?
    She remembered the landlord Mr. James’ words about the solid construction of his Topsider Home beach house, when she’d first talked to him on the phone to inquire about renting it for several months in the summer. His two-story, 2,140-square feet beach house was specifically designed by architects to be “hurricane proof” on the Florida coast, for protection against any severe storms with high impact glass windows, low maintenance exterior materials, and steel pilings to elevate the house to keep it safe from storm surges—“a structural battleship” against hurricane force winds and surges, he’d reassured her. One of his best friends was a Topsider architect and Topsider homes had stood the test of time for 45 years against the worst that old Mother Nature could throw at them, he told her passionately. He sounded like a commercial for Topsider, she thought, wryly grinning. But she decided, maybe against her better judgment, to rent it.
    Still, there was no such thing as a totally hurricane or storm proof home. Yet she prayed in faith Psalm 46:1-3 from The Message version: “God is a safe place to hide, ready to help when we need Him. We stand fearless at the cliff-edge of doom, courageous in sea storm and earthquake, before the rush and roar of oceans, the tremors that shift mountains. Jacob-wrestling God fights for us, God-of-Angel-Armies protects us.”
    She looked sleepily at her white waterproof watch with the LED light. 3:05 a.m. Just after 1 a.m. in Colorado , she thought. Faith would be asleep, maybe . She usually went to bed at midnight, after Rachel would fuss at her to go to bed. She was 20 years old, and didn’t have a curfew, she’d remind Rachel.
    Jackson would still be wide awake, watching a sci-fi movie on TV. He often fell asleep with the movie on, snoring loudly like a bear. She’d quietly turn the TV off, and he’d wake up, get mad, and say he wasn’t asleep and he was still watching it. The man drove her crazy.
    Suddenly she longed to have Jackson’s strong arms around her, protecting her from the hurricane. Or at least it would feel that way. When she was in his arms, she always felt so safe. Any time he told her, “It’s going to be okay,” it always was. Only this time he hadn’t said that to her. He’d told her to come home.
    She wanted to call him to hear his voice, just to hear him say it was going