My husband Steve and I watched the baseball game Monday night alternatively with the gathering group of storm clouds creeping over the ball park from the west. “We need to go, Cricket,” Steve said. “Those clouds look ugly.” I, never wanting to leave a baseball game prematurely, kept saying, “Let’s wait just a little longer.” He finally convinced me to go as the sky over the first base side went black.
We were about the distance between home and first base from the car when the wall of water swept over us. The wind drove the cold rain into our backs as we sprinted to the car. We plopped our soggy bodies into the seats and sat there as the storm rushed over us. It was difficult to see in the rain, which made for a confusing exit out of the parking lot.
The rain put a damper on our evening, but it certainly was more inconvenience than tragedy. Tragedy looms large as walls of water and wind have taken their toll in lost life and livelihoods in the midsection of our country. I can’t imagine the terror of the Joplin, Missouri, tornado. I’ve been in a tornado, a small one, and that was enough to scare me senseless. The worst part about tornadoes is the suddenness of them.
Equally frightening would be the knowledge that in order to prevent egregious loss of life and property downstream, water will be released into spillways, devastating neighborhoods and families. How do you choose what to put in a car and save and what to leave behind? The people, the animals…those are the easy choices. The photo albums, the electronics, the family heirlooms – those choices are difficult.
It’s easy, sitting in my office, to think about wind and rain as the gentle elements that help us fly kites and grow gardens. It’s not so easy thinking about them as vehicles of destruction. It takes a great deal of faith to believe that out of flooded plains and wind-wrought cities new creations will grow. It takes faith in God and it takes faith in the community that surrounds you. We need the wind of the Holy Spirit and the water of our Baptisms to work in us the desire to foster new life in the communities hard hit by Mother Nature. Pray and consider how you can best serve those in need.
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