Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina – too big for words.
Major disasters are too major. I can’t completely take it in. Newscasters speak of them as an event. A single event. In a particular area. At a particular time. I struggle to understand it all.
Sometimes they give you glimpses of the ongoing impact as they seek to explain the story. Nevertheless I am still overwhelmed by it all. It’s just so big, So enormous, so many people, homes and lives. So much pain, hurt and loss.
Major tragedies like Katrina also expose unwelcome truths about the fragility of life and the very worse of human behaviour. Perhaps some insurance companies calculate lives in money, just as some politicians may calculate lives in votes won or loss. How should we value a life?
So I sit here bewildered by the sheer size of the tragedy and feel disappointed that even tragedy becomes an opportunity for wrongdoing for some. I sit and wonder and look up. Some people ask – “where is God in all this pain?”
God isn’t limited the way I am. He can take it all in. He knows each person affected by name. He knows their lives, their loved ones and can feel what they are going through from within them. He sees each tear and counts each hair and even now is comforting and helping throughout the disaster. Still some ask – “Is God doing enough?”
Well, your answer depends on your point of view. Is God responsible for everything? Is everything up to him to deal with personally? Or has he given us the wisdom, resources and skill to predict many disasters in advance, to prepare for them to some extent and to help one another?
When mankind has been given the wisdom to know what is about to happen and the resources and strength to prepare – what else is lacking? Belief? Compassion?
The sad undertone to this event is the commentary that the division has been between black and white, rich and poor. It seems that we have used our freedom of choice, abilities and gifts to choose our response. To show how we value lives. It’s easy to blame things on God and walk away. It is much harder to examine how we choose to use His gifts to us.
Whilst nature at times terrifies us, it’s hardest of all to face the fact that much suffering and pain in this world could be spared if we cared a little more about those around us. Both before, as well as after, disaster strikes.
Major disasters are on some level a challenge to us all.
“So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.”
John 13:34 (NLT)