Faith Words: After the storm

Just a few weeks after school started in September 1961, Hurricane Carla devastated my home town.  My memories of that time are vivid.  You see, we didn't leave town.  We stayed in one of the office buildings at the refinery where my dad worked.  Other families stayed there, too.

As a seven year old, it was an adventure.  Rain, winds, rising water, power failures paled in comparison to being out of school, playing with other kids and being pushed around in an office chair.  I didn't have a clear understanding of the danger we were in and the destruction we'd soon face.

But in the days after the storm, when we were finally allowed to go back to our home to start the clean-up, I began to see that my world had changed and that I'd forever mark my memories as life before and after the storm.

Looking back, I wonder at the strength my parents and other adults in my life had as they began to rebuild.  First, you stand frozen, staring at the absolute mess that is everything you owned. Then, ready or not, you have to start trying to recover.  We had about four feet of water in our home.  All our furniture had to be replaced or repaired, if possible.  Appliances were beyond repair.  The hardwood floors that a few days before gleamed were now buckled and mud-covered.  Our clothes were soured and mildewed.  Our toys, too.  I can still see my large purple stuffed bear riding around the neighborhood on a pitchfork on the flatbed truck that came by collecting the debris.  I don't know why they left it hanging there, but day after day, every time that truck came by, there was my poor bear - a pitiful reminder that little had survived.

But that's not the end of the story.  As we worked together to rebuild our home and our town and heal from that nightmare, God worked, too.

After the storm, a goods collection/dispersal station was set up in our church building.  After the storm, good people from all over started sending us their clothes, their bedding, their toys.  After the storm, others who had been spared the storm's devastation shared what they had with those of us who'd lost almost everything.  After the storm, people started showing up to help clean up the mess.  After the storm, we found out that we were not alone.  After the storm, we had a new sense of what was important.

Storms rage in many forms.  Sometimes it's a hurricane.  Sometimes it's a tornado.  Sometimes it's cancer.  Sometimes it's divorce.  Sometimes it's death. 

Thankfully, we will again have times of calm and prosperity and blessing.  We'll understand that feeling of heartbreak that falls on folks going through their own storms.  We'll have opportunities to reach out to them and help them get back on their feet.  There is hope and there is life because there is still God, after the storm.

Blessings!

Patrice

Psalm 9:9  (NIV)

The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.