Tuesday, May 21, 2013

The Sadness of Oklahoma Is the Burden of All Americans

  
 
This could happen to any of us in the Midwest but it didn't. It happened in the small town of  Moore, Oklahoma.

Moore, Oklahoma (CNN) -- Kids screamed for their parents and parents hollered their children's names, walking and searching in panic in the parking lot of Briarwood Elementary in Moore, Oklahoma. The tornado that wrecked their town had just left. The sky behind them was still dark. Rain fell in a light mist.

"Caleb! Caleb!" one woman could be heard screaming, as another woman, bloody-faced, walked zombie-like through the crowd, holding a young boy's hand.

"Step over the wire!" someone shouted. Adults and children zig-zagged past each other. One man went to a little boy standing alone whose face was just then cracking into a full-out cry. The man put his arm around the kid and they both looked out into the chaotic parking lot, both apparently searching for the boy's parents.

One mother who spotted her son sitting with his teacher on a curb, gently grabbed the boy's hands and stood him up and then leaned her whole body over him, hugging him. She cried and then laughed and cupped his face.

The teacher said, "He was so brave!"

The mother then embraced the teacher. "Thank you," she wept, "thank you."

How are we to respond to such tragedy as we watch it unfold before our eyes on the TV screen as if it is another program to distract and amuse? Do we consider how we can help financially with a gift to an organization like United Methodist Commission on Relief (UMCOR) where we know that the dollars will go where they are intended? Do we pray for God to come along side these poor people and fill their hearts with His love and compassion at a time when they are undoubtedly asking "why"? Do we know of an organization that we could join up with and travel out to Oklahoma and use our talents to help them rebuild? Do we look around and see what we have been blessed with and acknowledge that all of it could be gone in an instant just like Moore, OK? Are we ready to let go of our worldly possessions and turn them over to the One who made it possible to have them? Or do our "things" possess us? 

This would be a good time to consider our own state of being; both physical and spiritual and make sure that we are ready if a similar occurrence were to happen in our lives. Let's use this tragic event to wake us up to the reality of our transitory existence in this world and prepare for the life which will be eternal.



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