Under the Wing

During yesterday evening we got the first bands of rain as the typhoon approached.  Steve had looked on the typhoon tracker website and seen that the typhoon was due to hit landfall about 8 p.m. and we would get the worst around 2 a.m.  Around 9 it started raining a bit heavier so our friends left to make sure they wouldn't get caught at our house for the night!
The wind started picking up and at 12:30 the electricity went off.  Steve got up to fetch a torch and close windows upstairs.  The wind was beginning to sound more like a jet engine and the tin roof on the extension the neighbours are building got really noisy like someone was shaking it up and down.  We were convinced it was going to fly off any second. (It managed to ride the typhoon out!)  By 1, Naomi had joined us in bed, Rose came in next about 20 minutes later.  We have experienced many typhoons while we have lived here - including Ondoy - but this was the most ferocious wind I have known.  Steve began moving boxes in the playroom because the rain was coming in.  Josh slept through the worst noise of the typhoon and woke up only when the rain became very heavy after the wind died down about 2.
Considering the power of the wind we were surprised when we drove out today how little (relatively) damage had been done.  Lots of trees down, branches on our roof, a few roadsigns blown over and some of the posters shredded.
The most amazing thing, though, was the visual God gave me of something I have been wrestling with.  I have been reading through the Psalms and noticing how often the Psalmist mentions God as their "shelter", or uses the image of being "under God's wing".  I have been trying to understand what this means.  Obviously it does not mean we escape difficult situations, or that we don't suffer physically.  So what does it look like?
Last night when Naomi got into bed next to me, she snuggled up to me with her back pressed against my side and literally was "under my wing" with her head under my armpit and my arm bent over her.  It made her feel secure and while it didn't change the fact that the typhoon was passing overhead and it didn't stop it being noisy and destructive, she obviously felt safe and secure enough to relax.
We don't avoid typhoons or their effects on our lives but we are safe and secure under the arm or "wing" of God.  If we stay close to His side, we will have peace.