From My Nature Journal: Bombogenesis and the Glory of God

You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor

and power, for You created all things, and by Your will (alt, ‘for

Your pleasure’) they existed and were created.

Revelation (Apocalypse) 4:11

We had been warned. It had been touted for days, an unprecedented storm off the coast of the Pacific Northwest that could be a record-breaker, not necessarily in rain or snow or duration, but in millibars. As a unit of measure for atmospheric pressure, was it something of interest to weather nerds only? No, for such a storm can produce near hurricane force winds. It hit overnight, and though our particular spot in the greater Seattle area was spared the fullest force, more than half a million homes are without power this morning in the higher east elevations of the Seattle metro, largely, the western foothills of the Cascades. 

Bombogenesis, these storms are called, a term coined by MIT meteorologists in the 80’s to describe a storm whose pressure drops more than twenty-four millibars in twenty-four hours. These storms are also called a manifestation of explosive cyclogenesis; I guess these meteorologists thought the substitution of the word ‘bomb’ was pretty clever. Frankly, cyclones are not that rare here; simply, they’re storms that bring significant moisture off the ocean. These happen in many parts of the world, sometimes accompanied by what is called an atmospheric river, a swirling rotation of rain that stays stationary over a land area much longer than normal. We get several of these each winter.

Interestingly, it’s usually us here to the west of Seattle who bear the brunt of these windy or rainytempests, with storms coming in from off the ocean. For us here on Whidbey Island, the winds roll right in off the Pacific through the Strait of Juan de Fuca and hit our island head-on about four miles west of our home. But this one was different: the air pressure would be so low offshore (I think I heard it broke or at least tied the historic record), that the winds came roaring westward down mainland mountainsides heading out to sea to counter and balance the incredibly low pressure offshore. It was quite a thing. Nature is so incredibly dynamic. And east winds are much more problematic here, as our oversized trees are more accustomed to the forces of western winds. Sure enough, thousands upon thousands of trees are down in the most affected areas. And since Gail and I have many enormous Douglas firs on our little acre in easy reach of our home, some a hundred feet tall and four to five feet in diameter, we chose to heed warnings and went to bed last night on the floor of the family room in our basement. We’re a little stiff getting up!

I wax. My apology. But I love this kind of stuff. Nature is so incredibly dynamic. It reminds me of God. 

Now, I know that nature is a system, and that it works the way it works because of the vigorous forces atmospheres create in combination with the complexities of landmasses and their elements. But I also believe that God is the Creator of such things, and that, ultimately, the power we see in nature is a reflection of the power that is God’s. 

The book of Revelation in the Bible (‘Apocalypse’ in some versions) contains images of visions seen by St. John the Apostle late in the 1st Century. John here has foresights of the end times, and among them are visions of all people gathered around the throne of God worshiping him in eternity. My devotions today had me listening to a recording of chapter 4. The wind was still strong outdoors, though the teeth of the storm here had mostly abated; but it was still dark while I was listening, and I had not yet had an opportunity to visually assess things and see if we had lost trees. (We didn’t.) Suddenly I hear of the elders, symbolic of the earth’s peoples, and several mystical creatures falling down and paying homage to God in the words with which I started this post, which I here paraphrase: “WORTHY are you, Lord, to receive ALL glory… and power. For you have not only created all things but have done so for your good pleasure.” I was swept up in their worship. And not only that; I could hear our trees outdoors in the dark whistling and swaying in the wind, and imagined them as the elders bowing down in worship. I wanted to join them, captivated by the vision.

That day will come. For now, I will content myself with joining towering firs in worship, or with joining in the singing of mountains or the clapping of trees’ hands in praise (Isaiah 55:12), or even the shouting out of “Hosanna!” by the stones of the earth (Luke 19:40). 

~~ RGM, November 20, 2024