Not the way it ought to be

I was standing in a store yesterday, women chatting around me, going about their day.  And on the far wall was a television, pictures of the Oklahoma tornado scrolling across the screen, the devastation as far as the horizon and reporters interviewing survivors.  The sound was turned on, but the voices were drowned out by the dailyness of what was going on around me. Please, I wanted to say, I want to hear this.

This morning, I awoke to the sound of pounding rain, feeling the heaviness of a new day for those who did not sleep in their own beds last night, for those whose homes have been swept away, and for those who have lost even more, a father who lost his little girl and who only last year lost his wife to illness.  My heart aches for them.

"Please, LORD, let survivors yet be found today," I prayed.  "Grant the crews success in finding them."

We live in a great mystery of how a tornado can suddenly appear on a clear blue day and of how some are spared and others not.  We cannot comprehend.  But still...

Even in this, we can know the reality of God - in distress, in trouble, and when we are over our head.  He is with us, even in these mysteries we cannot possibly comprehend.  When all is said and done, in some form or another, we all come to a point when there is nothing left to hold onto but God Himself.  It is why Scripture repeats over and over again, The LORD is my refuge and my strength.  We need Him.  We cannot live this life alone.  He never intended us to.

Where was God when that tornado hit?  He was right there, hunkering down with desperate people in those bathtubs and in the storm shelters, covering them with His angels, some even in the form of teachers.   

And some, God carried Home that day.

Our help is in the name of the LORD,
      who made heaven and earth.

                              Psalm 124.8

The landscape of this Oklahoma town has been altered.   Lives have been changed forever.  And these strong pioneering people will pick up the pieces of their lives in incredible ways.

And through the hardship, God will redeem.  I have often thought that in the wake of such tragedy, God responds and uses it for tremendous good... in ways deeper than we can understand.

I continue to hear reporters talk about incredible tales of survival that are emerging from the wreckage.  This is not the end of the story, but only the beginning.

God will redeem.