Praise God from who all blessings flow

Yesterday, we had a lot more excitement than I would have preferred.  It all began Wednesday night.  Michael is teething and not sleeping well.  At all.  That night was one of the worst, with me being up with him until after 1 am.  I finally crawled into bed, knowing that we were in line for a thunderstorm and praying that it wasn't too loud and crazy so that I could get a little sleep before the new day began.  I drifted off to sleep.  I was awakened around 4, with the sound of thunder and rain.  Randy checked the radar and saw that we were definitely going to get hit with something.  Little did we know...
I whispered a prayer for God's hand of protection over our family, our home and our fields.  Again, little did we know...
I closed my eyes once again, and was just beginning to relax into slumber when the loudest crack of thunder I have ever heard SHOOK the house.  I literally jumped up from the bed.  Randy and I heard some kind of loud beeping noise, and I quickly left the room to try to find it and stop it before it woke up Michael.  I said that it seemed to be coming from downstairs somewhere and Randy went down to check it out.  The beeping noise was coming from the dehumidifier, which was easy to take care of, but what greeted him in the basement was not at all what we were expecting.  There was a thin, smoky haze in the basement, accompanied by the smell of burnt electrical wiring.  As we searched with flashlights to see exactly what had happened, Timothy came down to see what was going on.  Flashlight in hand, Timothy asked what the big dark spot on the wall was about.  We both turned to look, and discovered that the wall around the phone jack was charred.  
As we went through the house, the pieces began to fall into place.  As I said, what was left of one phone jack was surrounded by charred sheetrock (the jack itself had been blown apart).  Another phone jack was found with about 2 inches of phone cord attached, the remainder of the wire having been blown apart.  The modem and wireless router for the computer was charred, and the carpet where they had been was melted.  
Outside, the siding was charred around the phone box on the side of the house, and there was a hole burnt in the wood behind the siding.  There was charred grass at the base of a large tree near the house, bordering the driveway, and a hole in the driveway itself.  Obviously, lightning had struck the tree, blown a hole in the driveway and hit the phone line, completely obliterating it.  There really is no way that we shouldn't have had a fire.  I am truly in awe at God's hand of protection over us and our home, just as I had prayed.  
I am also thankful to the men from our local phone cooperative, who were out right away in the morning.  The first man who came said that in over 25 years on the job, he had NEVER seen anything that bad.  He was immediately on the phone, calling in more guys and equipment.  They went to work immediately to inspect everything and restring the phone lines.  Everything was restored by that afternoon.  They had also called in the electric company to inspect the electrical lines to make sure that everything was ok.  
Given what could have (and probably should have) been, the damage was really so minimal.  I am absolutely, truly humbled by the way the Lord protected us, and the way he orchestrated the help and restoration.  God is so great, and His mercy endures forever.