Stories From the Storm

God’s goodness was on display in the midst of the disaster.

Just in case anyone missed the recent weather incident in Southwest and Central Louisiana, we had this pesky little thunderstorm named Hurricane Laura pay us a quick visit. Indeed, the visit was quick, but the aftermath is ongoing as I write this, and will continue into the foreseeable future. If your abode isn’t in the immediate vicinity, it is possible you have no clue of the destruction our area incurred, because national news sources seem to have little concern for small-town, backwoods, can-do, salt-of-the-earth folks like the ones that call our neck of the woods home. However, while most of the country is arguing over whether Trump or Biden will make the best next president, fighting over which lives do and don’t matter, and debating over how much climate change played a role in this year’s barrage of wildfires in California, the good people of Louisiana are doing what we do…picking up the pieces and helping each other put them back together.

Now that I’ve vented a little, allow me to get to the good stuff of this post. Since Hurricane Laura came and went, I have talked, prayed, and cried with scores of folks – all of whom have a story to tell. And while this is not the place for an exhaustive tale of storm-related stories, I would like to relay a couple of the ways God’s goodness was on display in the midst of the disaster.

1 – My oldest son and his family were inside their home as Laura crashed through our area. Hearing the dreaded crack, pop, and crunch of a tree hitting the roof, Derrick went to the area of the house that seemed to be the victim of the assault. Opening the door of his oldest daughter (our oldest granddaughter) Lana’s room, rather than glimpsing her bed and dresser, he saw only rafters and ceiling tiles intermingled with tree limbs lying directly on the spot that his sleeping daughter should have been occupying. Calling out her name, he got no reply. Obviously fearful that the worst had happened, he called out again and began moving debris to get to his little girl. Shortly thereafter, from a hole in the wreckage about the size of a basketball, Lana’s head popped out, and the sweetest voice simply said, “Hi Daddy.” Call it a coincidence if you wish. I am convinced that the hand of God cradled that little girl in the only position she could’ve been in to come from the heap without a single scratch. (Psalm 95:7)

2 – A dear friend was heeding the advice of those in the know concerning catastrophic storms. She had taken a mattress into the interior hallway of her home and was using it as protection from potential debris should the roof of the house fail or be compromised by some foreign object. At a certain point, the howling winds and groans of bending trees got the best of her curiosity, and Monique decided to get up and go peer through the window at the torrent of nature that was upon her. During this brief time, as Monique was mesmerized by the force of the hurricane that could be seen briefly through flashes of lightning, the same distinct crack, pop, crunch mentioned in the previous story passed by her eardrums. When she went back into the hallway, eerily she saw remnants of the roof of the house and portions of the giant pecan tree from the back yard invading the very spot she had been laying with her protective mattress. Had Monique’s curiosity not been piqued urging her to take a look outside, she would have been injured, or worse, by the falling tree that crashed through the roof of the house. Again, call it coincidence, but I believe it is the result of God’s promise that he will be a voice telling us which way to go (Isaiah 30:21).

Stories such as these are abundant, and I am convinced that once the pieces are put back together and a sense of normalcy returns, we will begin to hear accounts that reveal the fingerprints of God all over the path of Laura’s destruction. After all, Hurricane Laura was just a single storm over a single body of ocean water on a single planet in a single solar system in a single galaxy in the entire universe, and the Bible says that God holds all of these things in absolute control! (Job 26:5-14). With that knowledge, as we enjoy the beauty of creation and even toil to recover from the storms that pass our way, somewhere along life’s journey – but hopefully not in a hurricane – I’ll see you…in the Great Outdoors!