We are now eleven weeks post-Hurricane Michael, and the word that has stood out to me over the past few days is hope.
After last week’s dreary post, I needed something positive to focus on.
When you’ve been through something as devastating as a Cat 5 storm, the only thing you have to hold on to is hope.
I’ll admit that it’s been elusive at times – especially when you don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel.
We haven’t even begun repairs on our home and have no idea when things will get started. Although vegetation debris is getting picked up from the sides of the roads, there are still so many trees that need to be cleared off of people’s properties.
We hear of smaller communities north of us who are suffering greatly still – of neighbors who, even now, almost three months later, don’t have cable or internet.
For a first-world country, it’s mind-blowing.
Sunday, my church’s pastors and their wives handed out ornaments they had made from the downed trees that once towered over our church.
See the Bible verse?
It’s no coincidence that it echoes, almost word-for-word, the comment that Rebecca left me last week.
I’ve worked out long enough to know that muscles get stronger when a person lifts weights. It’s actually after the microfibers have been torn a little that new growth happens.
I’m also aware that, oftentimes, trees must be cleared to allow the younger ones room to flourish.
I somehow doubt, though, that anyone would purposely clear such a large volume of trees at once.
Despite this, I know, with every ounce of my body, that God will grow us stronger – that He will fill in the void left behind by nature.
When our pastor told us that every family was being given one ornament, he encouraged us to not pack them away when Christmas is over but, instead, to keep them where we could see them as a reminder of the promise God had made long ago.
I went back as I was writing this and looked at when and to whom God spoken those words. I caught my breath when I saw that it was Job who was the recipient.
God promised this man, who had lost everything, that He would restore that which was lost.
At one of the darkest times of his life, Job was given hope.
It’s a promise that is still true today and one that I cling to fervently.
I don’t know what I’d do without it.
Filed under: This-n-That | Tagged: 850strong, Hurricane Michael, Panhandlestrong | Leave a comment »
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