[NOTE: This is a sequel to yesterday’s post on prayers during the tornado.]

During the Moore tornado, teacher Anna Canady had a prayer [emphasis mine]:

She remembered that as the tornado bore down on this school in Moore, Okla., she and Simonds took the kids into the hall, among them her own daughter, 5-year-old Kali.

“I just grabbed as many kids as I could, eight of 10 kindergartners,” Canaday recalled.

Canaday took half the children and Simonds took the others. The teachers had them get down on their knees against the wall and cover their heads, just as they had often done in the school’s regular drills. The tornado roared ever near.

“We just held them and told them to keep their heads down,” Canaday remembered. “I kept telling them they were going to be just fine and God was going to take care of us. I prayed as loud as I could.”

The twister was right upon them in all its fury.

“When it hit it was so loud,” Canaday said. “I just kept telling the kids under me, ”˜It’s going to be OK.’ I prayed aloud”¦”˜Just take me instead because they’re the babies.’”

The story has a happy ending. Somehow, in the melee, a car that probably had been in the school parking lot was lifted up and came to rest on top of the huddled group as the school collapsed around them and over them. The vehicle acted as a shield, protecting them from the rest of the debris, and both teachers and all the children escaped with only very minor injuries.

And when Canaday’s distraught husband was reunited with his wife and daughter and learned they were okay, daughter Kali remembered that he’d emphasized to her to take good care of her glasses and not break them, because they were expensive. She apologetically explained:

“She said, ”˜Daddy, I’m OK, but my glasses broke when the school fell on me,’” he reports.

Somehow I bet he didn’t hold it against her.