I just can't get this little four-year-old girl out of my mind. Even as I'm writing this, her story hits my heart again.

She and her family only had moments to prepare before that F5 tornado hit Joplin, Missouri last month. Mom and Dad battled fierce winds as they shepherded everyone into the safest corner of the house. Well, not quite everyone. Somehow their little four-year-old got separated from them - and the rushing winds made looking for her impossible. They huddled together as the tornado made a direct hit on their house, leveling it almost instantly.

Because we have so many Native American friends in the Southwest, I've been watching that ravenous wildfire in eastern Arizona very carefully. When you evacuate, you never know if you'll have a home to come back to.

Nobody ever said college guys are going to win the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. Entering many of their dorm rooms is only for the very brave. And those with a strong stomach. Where is Mom when you really need her?

A 911 call alerted first responders that a man was slowly wading out into San Francisco Bay, inching his way to ending his life there. Soon a group of firefighters - along with a crowd of 75 people - were watching as this desperate man went deeper and deeper, occasionally looking back at the shore. They stood there for an hour.

The land is flat around Joplin, Missouri. Now much of the town has been leveled by an F-5 tornado. So it's just heartbreaking devastation as far as the eye can see.

But there's one thing still standing. A reporter commented on it this morning as the camera scanned across the sea of wreckage. It's a cross. His words went right to my heart –

A lot of people I know of have friends in Joplin, Missouri. So they're feeling the unimaginable devastation and loss there on a personal level. It's always that way when a disaster has a face.

Many people in the region are mobilizing to help in some way. The stories emerging from the rubble are touching all of us deeply. And even causing many to rethink their own response to frequent tornado warnings.

I thought Humpty Dumpty was just a nursery rhyme. You know, that big egg who sat on a wall, but had a great fall. Turns out he's got a lot of company these days. Sitting on a high wall. Smashed by a big fall.

It's been an awful spring for tornadoes. Again, our news coverage is filled with those all-too-familiar images of a city leveled and a death toll rising. This time, it's Joplin, Missouri.

The image they keep showing over and over came from a cell phone video shot in a convenience store, literally as the tornado was tearing that store apart. Miraculously, everyone survived. But they didn't think they would.

I watched the news today. They were talking about doomsday. And it made me sad. Not because I'm nervous about Jesus fulfilling all His prophecies about earth's final chapter. But because millions are laughing about something they desperately need to take seriously.

When it's man versus lots of water, you know the water's often going to win. Oh, we've built dams and levees and water management systems. But sometimes - like now along the Mississippi - there's just too much water.