The story of Elijah’s search for the voice of God has informed the modern reader that God’s voice is not always loud or energetic such as in the whirlwind or in the fire or in the earthquake.  It has therefore become popular to think of God’s voice as being the still and calm one, as if he never yells, never screams he never speaks animatedly.  Gee, I, and many of you, have become accustomed to treating the voice of mother or father as the voice of God, and their voices, we know, often get animated, loud and urgent.  So let me take the still calm voice of God for spin, having become aware that God speaks in the African whirlwind every year.  Vox turbinis is the voice of the Atlantic hurricane season, sometimes, verifiably, the voice of God.

Africa and the annual cyclones

What a fascinating discovery it is that the Atlantic hurricane originates in Africa and crosses the Atlantic degrees past the islands of the Caribbean and impacts the North American continent.  So let’s call it an African whirlwind.  The damage repeated every year is a loud message to populations who seem unwilling to batten down the hatches, move inland and keep our heads down. Beach front properties are still quite popular. Millions of people in the Caribbean and North America do their best to cope and millions more wish they can best the hurricane. One thing is certain: westward movements from Africa are a fixture. There is no stopping the African whirlwind, people or hurricane! I’d like to think that the voice of God is playing in the hurricane. Defying it can be costly. American politics obviously wants to play ostrich as hurricanes intensify and the call for accountability for the slave trade gets louder.