Storm

House is gone.
Everyone's okay.
Please pray.
[first text message]

This text message sent me swarming back to the hour prior to. Perhaps it sent me back as a forcible sort of selective memory. Temporarily ignoring the present. This hour I went back to held a much different scene than my present paint-peeled basement walls, cement floors, and titanic storm systems. In this earlier hour I was texting a dear young lady named Abigail Hope Ogle who was sitting in the mounting wind of an impending weather hazard with a puppy in her lap staring over the land and the pond and remarking on nature's worship and ode to the power of the one God. She was full of joy and singing to the "exploding spring" that she loved. I could see it all in my head. You just have to know Abi. She has a precious and rare heart and it shows. She is an appreciateur and an artist. She talks of Yahweh like He’s the reason she’s alive. She talks of trees and flowers and paintings and the ocean and even storms like they were all made to worship Him. She carries kindness around like it’s the latest fashion.

The girl is good.

In the past few days she had told me of her home and family until I came to know them and have a deep appreciation for them. The house, only recently completed, was referred to fondly as the "Forever" House.

Forever.

An F5 tornado is no friend to the human endeavor. On April 27, 2011 one steam trained through Alabama taking out entire cities. In minutes their “forever” was over. They were sitting down for dinner in the basement when the doors slammed in, the stairway collapsed, glass exploded everywhere and the wall caved in. Her grandmother shielded two other members of the family against the glass, sustaining injuries herself. Their cue for exit had arrived. The rain was tearing down from the sky in sheets like it was being wrung out and the wind was adding to the noise. All were terrified, shocked, and afraid, but soon regained an air of calmness. They entered a room that was still intact until help would arrive and they sang songs. Yes, they sang. What peace is this?

Everything’s gone.
God has a plan
Jeremiah 29:11-13
[second text message]

In observing this warfare between a small patch of humanity and the weakly named "natural disasters" I have to wonder at the unobserved. What was going on in the great cosmic conflict and conversation when trees and lives were being uprooted. Did it hold any kinship with the Jobian tale?

...there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.

So far the description fits. Now for the supernatural symposium going on in the invisible world:

One day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. The Lord said to Satan, "Where have you come from?"

Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it.”

Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him: he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”

“Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”

The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.”

That sounds about right. I can see God bragging on this person. Saying, “Hey Satan, I bet Abigail really gets under your skin. Have you noticed how blameless she is? She loves me. How do you like that?” And then smug Satan of course is so sure that if you pulled the rug out from under her she would fall…but it didn’t happen.

She didn’t curse His face at all. In fact she was full of praise for Him and thanks for her family. The next morning she sent me a verse from the Bible as she has been in the habit of doing. She asked me how I was. I was joyfully indignant. Your house is gone! Let me worry about you! It just didn’t happen. After school: same thing. All the colons and parenthesis smiling at me and of all the pure audacious goodness, she asked about how school was, that is after a day for sifting through the wreckage of what once was her shelter which she insists was “somewhat enjoyable.” She was sure to tell me that God has a better plan and she has an amazing peace and to thank me for my prayers. She was also excited to find that her kitten and puppy were found alive.

Everything’s great!
God is so good.
It’s a beautiful day.
[text message from the day after]

All this less than twenty-four hours after everything was taken from her.

As the sick, sour feeling was still lacing my normally dormant emotions I was shooting pool with my friend Daniel. He said a really true thing. He told me it was all going to be alright and that this was just going to be a testimony to the greatness of God before long. I suppose that’s what most tragedies are.

Potential Testimonies.

Christians, like our heroine here, keep showing Satan that there are many willing to stand up and say “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.” There are still those worthy of God’s boasting and consideration. Hundreds of people were killed or lost loved ones to this horrendous storm. This is just one story. The fact is, there are still people praising Him in their storms both literal and figurative. And I thank God for them.