We all loaded up in our van and headed for the communities affected by the recent tornadoes. I say 'affected', but it's more like ravaged. It's the second time in a little less than a year that I've seen what a tornado can accomplish in a matter of seconds. We drove around in astonishment looking at these used to be homes. There are no words at times. We just stared with round eyes and opened mouths.
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| I believe this is looking up someone's driveway, where their home used to be. Where their life used to be. |
The pictures don't really do it justice. It literally looks as if someone stuffed everyone's belongings into a giant blender and then took the debris and blasted it with a cannon through the trees. There's roof tin intertwined in tree tops, insulation plastered in fences and all over the ground. Toys, clothes, pictures, memories. All mixed up and torn up and mostly you can't even tell what any of the rubble used to be because it's all been shredded beyond recognition.
We drive to several homes, ask the people there if we can help in anyway, but everyone so far says come back later. I can understand. It's a cold, wet day. The kind that no one really wants to be out in. Probably everyone is taking a break from the clean-up.
But how can you 'take a break' when you're living in the basement of your house because the rest of it's gone, and all you have for a roof is a blue tarp?
It is a dismal day. The rain falls in sheets and the wind whips about as if it's trying to push everyone away because it's ashamed for anyone to see the devastation it caused earlier.
Finally, we come to a house where they can use our help. We climb out of the van and immediately step into an inch of thick mud. My first thought is how dirty we're all going to get. There's no avoiding it. And there's no use complaining about the cold, and the wet and the brown slime covering our feet.
How can I even think about complaining? We all have a warm home and hot shower to go back to, these people don't:
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| The blue tarp is covering this house's foundation. It's all that was salvageable after the tornado. |
The guys grab a wheelbarrow and start shoveling it full. Along with the mud there's baby toys, key rings, bricks, insulation, glass, all mixed together in a sloppy, dirty soup. And the rain just keeps pouring down while I try to find meaning in it all.
If you're a writer (or blogger) like me, sometimes you take the observatory approach to these kinds of situations. You try to notice and remember as much as you can so you can write about it later. And while I'm pushing and pushing the mud away, I'm doing just that. But nothing is coming to me in the form of an idea for a future blog post. So I just keep pushing this slop around and waiting. It's not until we're about to leave that God speaks to me through the rubble.
I married into a family of mostly boys. Boys like cars. This is new to me (coming from a family with only two boys and six girls.). It amazes me that we drive down the highway and I can ask Jonathan what virtually any car is and he can tell me the name, year and who the maker of the car is. It's very rare that he isn't able to identify a one. It's a trait that he shares with his dad and all his brothers. They know cars. They notice cars. Even here, even amidst the turmoil and wreckage of a tornado's wrath. Jordan (Jonathan's younger brother) spots something about 200 feet from the home. A car, and Jonathan identifies it as a 1967 mustang.
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| Jonathan, Tamara and Jordan are in the left corner by the tree with the tin in it, wearing blue. That's where the car was.
They walk down to see the car and I stand on the back steps of this used to be home and take it all in. I see the once beautiful hills and think about what a lovely view this family must have had, but not anymore. Now the trees are ripped apart, now their life is strewn about in the tattered forest, their life work washed in mud. It's overwhelming really, to see so many personal things just thrown about for the world to see.
After they get back, Jordan makes a comment. "So much work put into that car, so much money, and now it's just...." He doesn't finish his sentence, he just shrugs his shoulders. But I know what the last word of his sentence would have been: gone.....GONE.
Jordan knows how much money, time and effort goes into restoring old cars. Their family has taken on several of them as projects over the years. So he understands what it means to see that old mustang (which had been restored or kept in good condition) all smashed, shattered and buried at the bottom of the trees. It makes him shake his head and it makes me sad. And the more I think about it, God starts speaking to me.
I don't want to put all my time and effort into something that, in the end, is going to end up as rubble. Or can, in a matter of seconds, be ripped away from me. Why not use my life to invest in things that nothing on this earth can destroy and that will be eternal?
God says that all of our works will be tested by fire. He says that fire will reveal what sort of work each one has done.
'each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.'
1 Corinthians 1:13
I don't want what I've done with my life to be burned up like 'wood, hay and stubble'. I want it to last and mean something. And the truth is only what's done for and through Jesus will last eternally. So I pray that I learn the lesson that I believe God taught me out there amongst all the tornado damage. Here it is:
Don't waste time investing in and clinging to earthly things. It can be destroyed in a second. Don't place all of your value and worth in things of this world. That includes relationships, an area that I struggle putting way too much value in. Yes, God wants us to invest in people, by pointing them to Him. And yes, we can benefit by having healthy, Godly relationships with people. But humans and material things were never meant to be worshipped, which is something I tend to do by the way I cling to them. I need Jesus. He is what will satisfy me and He is the Eternal One. And if what I do and what I have is centered in Christ than that can never be taken from me.
'for "All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that was preached to you.' 1 Peter 1:24-25
Lord, please help me to live in an eternal mindset. Help me to be focused and driven by a love for You. And give me the grace to do all things for Your glory.
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Jonathan and Jordan walking down the hill.
Please keep all these tornado victims in your prayers. Pray that God will use the situation to bring them closer to Him.
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