It's been one week since Hurricane Helene made its way through the southeast US. It is a lot to process and there are many stories to be told. This is just one tiny part of the story, one tiny part of my story.
From Saturday, September 28, 2024
I sit here in the dark with my dog, a darkness I have not seen before. The lights are out, there is no power for miles. The stars are asleep blanketed by a layer of heavy clouds that still linger over head. I think of how everything is a gift from God above, from my life and this very breath that I take to the cup from which I drink my coffee. It is all a gift; temporary, and fleeting at some point, though we do not know when. The devastation I saw yesterday just from the edges, the edges of the barriers of roads closed and guardrail that sit high above the river was unfathomable. Seeing homes swept away, rescuers working, hearing a scream, I cannot understand it, and it's not my place to question it. It' all a gift. God gives and God takes away. And I can only trust that there must be a plan. It sounds harsh and calloused and cold, and it does not ease my own grief, it does not dry my own tears. but it does give me hope. And I think of this community which I hold so dear and have come to love so much, and I know we are not the only community hit. I don't doubt that we will rise up and rally and come together and there will be celebration and there will be mourning, there will be clean up and there will be tear down.
Jesus could have saved John, his cousin. He could have saved himself, but he didn't. He knew there was something greater ahead. So, I don't know what comes of this, or of pandemics, or earthquake or tsunamis, but I know that we'll see humanity, I know we'll see community, we'll see love, and we'll see the barriers of divisiveness broke down as we are humbled and stripped of the very delicate balance of life and loss. And just like when I was a small child and I'd look to my parent to pick me up or hold my hand when I was scared, I'm going to reach my hand out to God and ask him to hold it, to calm my fears, and I will trust in him. Amen.