'Till The Thunder Sounds No More'

Author's Note: When I was a little girl, exactly 2 months and 4 days before my 5th birthday, the axis to my world crumbled and an amazingly Godly man named Ronald 'Ronnie' Rosenberry passed from this earth and into the arm's of God.  I called him 'Daddy'.  The months before his passing, I alone of my 3 siblings was young enough to be around the house for the duration of his battle with cancer.  I saw him suffer and I longed to bring him comfort and to relieve the pain I saw in his eyes when he looked at me and was tormented by the knowledge that me and my sister and brother would be growing up without him.  I remember going to the grocery store with my mother as she was forced to pick out what she felt to be the most 'tasty' looking baby-food for him to eat because with the food tube in his throat due to the esophogial cancer he could no longer eat solid or even ground-up food.  I remember asking him one day towards the end as I had so many times before, 'Daddy, will you read to me?'  He could not answer me through emotion.  You see, at this point, he was so weak that he could barely talk and certainly didn't have the energy to read me a story any longer.  My mother had to try and explain to me that daddy couldn't read to me that day because he was too sick.  She kindly offered to read for me in his stead, but I declined.  It was kind of her to offer, but it just wouldn't have been the same.

In that last year or so of his life, before he grew so weak he could no longer read to us, he liked to sit at the piano and play and sing.  I don't remember what his voice sounded like, 31 years has dimmed that particular memory into a yellowed photograph too dim to discern.  But my mother says while he could hold a tune, he had a little too much vibrato in his voice to make it truly pretty - which she has said very lovingly.  Like many things in his life, I believe it was his gentle, Christ-filled spirit that made it beautiful.  I do, however, remember that one of the songs he sang during that time was a song by an old gospel singer/song-writer named Mosie Lister. http://www.popularhymns.com/till_the_storm_passes_by.php called 'Till The Storm Passes By'.  Throughout my life riding the many hills, turns, loops, and spins of its roller-coaster ride, I have never forgotten that song or how, shortly after my dad's passing, my older brother (11 yrs. old at the time)sang the song in church in our father's memory.  (My brother, incidentally, has grown into a man much like my father was before him.  He's got a huge heart, he's incredibly compassionate, He loves the Lord, is patient and protective with his children, and he loves to sing.  So do I, for that matter.) Perhaps because of the very strong association the song has with my father and the emotions that link that to a father's love, protection, and even sorrow for his children, there are points in my life where I still listen to this song to feel the comfort it brings.  Sometimes, after a very difficult day or frame of time, it is a song that I hear replaying in my mind like a lullaby until I finally fall asleep.  Last night was one such night... (won't tell the weekend's story here)

Till The Storm Passes By

 

In the dark of the midnight,
Have I oft hid my face;
While the storm howls above me,
And there's no hiding place;
'Mid the crash of the thunder,
Precious Lord, hear my cry;
"Keep me safe 'til the storm passes by."

'Til the storm passes over,
'Til the thunder sounds no more;
'Til the clouds roll forever from the sky,
Hold me fast, let me stand,
In the hollow of Thy hand;
Keep me safe 'til the storm passes by.

Many times Satan whispers,
"There is no need to try;
For there's no end of sorrow,
There's no hope by and by";
But I know Thou art with me,
And tomorrow I'll rise;
Where the storms never darken the skies.

'Til the storm passes over,
'Til the thunder sounds no more;
'Til the clouds roll forever from the sky,
Hold me fast, let me stand,
In the hollow of Thy hand;
Keep me safe 'til the storm passes by.

When the long night has ended,
And the storms come no more,
Let me stand in Thy presence.
On that bright, peaceful shore.
In that land where the tempest
Never comes, Lord may I
Dwell with Thee when the storm passes by.

'Til the storm passes over,
'Til the thunder sounds no more;
'Til the clouds roll forever from the sky,
Hold me fast, let me stand,
In the hollow of Thy hand;
Keep me safe 'til the storm passes by.

Hold me fast, Let me stand,
In the hollow of Thy hand;
Keep me safe 'til the storm passes by.

'Til the storm passes by.