miles per hour. It was a stormy morning throughout Southwest Florida, and the tornado here was not the only one registered. But it missed out neighborhood, our community. Not 200 yards from our home trees were felled, siding on buildings ripped off, even a roadside building with an icemaker in it was lifted off its foundation and dropped back down fifty feet away. As I sit in my living room writing this I can hear the chainsaws clearing away fallen trees. But though our community lost electricity due to damage to lines down the road, it was untouched.
I wasn't home. I was on Sanibel, conducting worship. It was stormy out there--lots of wind and rain and some thunder and lightning. But no tornadoes. Just the inconvenience of the internet going down in the middle of our livestream. But Sanibel is well-known for its less than fully reliable internet. My wife, though, was caring for my mother here in Fort Myers, and they took to the laundry room for shelter at one point. But as I said, in the end the community was unscathed.
No doubt there are some within our neighborhood saying God spared us, God protected us, or something like that. But that always bothers me. Did God abandon, or worse yet punish, the hundreds of folks whose homes were damaged? Did God look the other way as some thirty or so mobile or manufactured homes were totally destroyed? I think not. But that is the logical corollary to suggesting God spared us.
This is not a new conundrum. Folks have pondered it for centuries. And I'm not sure how to unravel it. But for the moment, I am satisfied with suggesting that while God doesn't direct tornadoes or any other natural disaster, God does stand ready to support us when they occur. And often that support comes in and through other people.
I'm so glad you were spared. Here's my 2 cents.
ReplyDeleteThe purpose of earth life is to prove our worthiness to live In His Presence for eternity. We are given trials/tests and are allowed to endure and be part of other's trials. Each experience is an opportunity to grow and develop. Sometimes they are for us directly, and sometimes they are to see how we will respond to others trials. There are no coincidences. It helps me to be able to get on my knees and ask heavenly Father what he wants me to learn from each trial, and then to listen! Sometimes the answer comes quickly and sometimes he waits for us to discover it. For most of us, it takes practice and time to develop this open communication, but it IS attainable.