Last night I sat at my computer, watching video coverage of the Joplin, Missouri tornado and the wreckage it left behind. As I tried to grasp the enormity of the damage and destruction, I realized the pictures and videos must not even begin to portray the devastation left in the wake of this monstrous storm.
It is hard to imagine an entire town virtually wiped off the map. The videos show before and after satellite pictures and the dramatic changes are startling. Nature's fury unleashed a mile wide path of destruction, and the dazed expressions on the survivors faces tell the story. Imagine driving through your local town, with all the familiar landmarks which previously served as visual navigational cues, completely wiped out. Or being unable to recognize your own street.
The videos also show people sifting through the rubble that was once their home, trying to salvage whatever they can of their shattered lives. The local hospital suffered a huge blow, and news reports describe the loss of patients records, of hospital items found miles and miles away from the town.
Most devastating of all was the loss of lives, well over one hundred people living and breathing one minute; in an instant their lives literally snuffed out by this monstrous beast. Survivors walked around, some dazed, some panicked, tearfully searching for loved ones. They were hoping for the best but bracing for the worst.
Meanwhile, in my own neighborhood, we've received so much rain the saturated grounds can no longer absorb the onslaught. Lakes and rivers are overflowing, basements are flooding and entire neighborhoods are praying for an end to the stormy misery.
But in life, there can always be found suffering far worse than our own.
Joplin, Missouri is just such an example. However, the residents of this devastated town will rebuild. They will pick up the pieces of their crumbed lives and move on.
Nature flexes its muscles in so many different ways. But the human spirit, in all of its tenacity, discovers muscles it never knew it possessed.
Joplin, Missouri, with the help of many, will be flexing theirs now.
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