Since it happened in Arkansas, it hit pretty close to home. In a campground, described by a vacationer as "one of the most beautiful places on earth," hundreds of campers were overwhelmed by a "wall of water" that came in the middle of the night. A river that's normally about knee deep rose to a depth of 23 feet during the night - eight feet in one hour! I'm looking at the 8' walls in my office and trying to imagine a wall of water almost three times higher than that.
The stories of lives and loved ones lost are absolutely heart-wrenching. Including some folks here in town who lost family members who were there with them for a family reunion. Given the suddenness of that flood, it's amazing that so many of the estimated 300 people who were in that area survived. For many, it was a tree that saved them.
One young girl was at the mercy of that raging river until she landed with her stomach to a tree and her back to the water. She held on there for three hours, waiting for rescuers. Four other people survived by tying themselves to a tree with a small rope and linking arms together. One of them described "hanging on for dear life."
My mind doesn't always think in a straight line - so I'm not sure why those stories made me flash back to a reservation funeral I attended several years ago. It had to do with the tree. A young man who had traveled with our Native American outreach team, On Eagles' Wings, had died suddenly, tragically - and much too soon. His open reservation grave was ringed that day by many of us who loved him - including his brokenhearted brother.
I'll never forget the scene of that grieving brother "hanging on for dear life" to a large wooden cross at the head the grave. The flood had hit without warning. He was saved by hanging onto a "tree."
So many times, that's what has saved me. I've never been in a physical flash flood, but I know what it is to be hit by a sudden calamity - the kind that hits without warning. It happened in the past couple of weeks when three different members of my family, in three different parts of the country, were hit almost simultaneously by a serious and unexpected medical crisis. Our four-year-old grandson, who had gone into the hospital for a diagnostic procedure, ended up in major, life-impacting surgery.
I've been in a waiting room and heard the words "Code Blue" - only to discover that the life they were fighting for was a deeply loved member of my family (thank God, there was a happy ending). I've had the opportunity to encourage many friends who watched years of savings or investments washed away almost overnight by America's financial "flash flood." I've been there when a friend was leveled by one word from his wife - "divorce."
When the flood suddenly washes away everything else you've been hanging onto, there's still the Tree. When we can't understand why the flood came...when our grief is inconsolable...when we've lost what we loved - we can still hug the Cross. Our hearts cry out to a Savior who was "a man of sorrows, familiar with suffering" (Isaiah 53:3). To a God who knows what it feels like to watch His "one and only Son" die (John 3:16). To a Heavenly Father who "is close to brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit" (Psalm 34:18).
When my beloved grandson was "under the knife" for six hours of surgery...when the "Code Blue" was someone I could not lose - I ran to the Cross, my anchor, my blood guarantee that God loves me and will never let me go. And the anchor holds. We are saved - for now and for eternity - by hanging onto the Tree.
If you would like to pursue a personal love-relationship with the God Ron has
written about here, visit Yours For Life or call 1-888-966-7325 (toll-free).