I Still Don't Believe It

            I still don’t believe it!  Returning to Birmingham on Wednesday, a week after the tornado outbreak, I drove over to Pleasant Grove to the street where Ronnie and Clydene Charles lived.  After finding their badly damaged house, I stood in the yard and looked in front of me at an area which looked for all the world like it had been bombed into oblivion.  I was looking at it with my own eyes, but my mind wouldn’t believe it.  I have never seen such destruction.

             I am so grateful that, although their house is a wreck, they came through the storm safely.  And I am also grateful other Pleasant Grove families related to the church I'm serving, Central Park Baptist, came through safely, although some had damage to their homes.

            When I look at Pleasant Grove and realize that this is only one spot devastated by the storms, that great swaths of cities and whole small towns were blown away, I can only imagine the totality of the destruction.  And because well over two hundred people in Alabama lost their lives, I know there is  great amount of grief for the families and the friends of those who were lost.

            I praise God for the tremendous outporing of concern from all over the nation and, particularly by Alabamians, for those who were hit; providing money, shelter, food, water and other goods.

              The dead will be missed for a long time, the injured will heal over time, the homes and neighborhoods will be rebuilt; but the lives of those who suffered and the lives of all of us who stood with them will be changed forever.

            In spite of all that happened I still stand by a statement that our daughter has all over her house, “Life is Good.”  It’s good because God is good.  We may not understand, but we know without a doubt that God is good.  More about this later.

Grace and peace.