A Light in the Tornado

Thursday, January 2, 2014

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It was November, and we were thinking turkey, not tornadoes. Right before Thanksgiving there were some 68 tornadoes that didn't consult the calendar. From EF-2s to EF-4s, they left a swath of erased homes and devastated communities across the middle of America. Washington, Illinois was clearly one of the epicenters of the violence from the skies. And the pictures from there are all too familiar; splintered neighborhoods, and residents trying to figure out which pile of rubble used to be their home, and what one reporter called "the good stuff." Like Steve Bucher, who has no home address as of the night the tornado hit. He told CNN that his attitude was "in the next minute and a half, we're either gonna be in heaven or we're going to be in the hospital, or we're going to walk out of here." Thankfully, they walked out safe. But minus pretty much everything else they had.

His next comment caused an anchorman to say, "Now that's character. That's strength." Bucher said his wallet - with about a hundred dollars in it - had been upstairs when the twister hit. He knew it was gone. Later, a man came by and saw Bucher sifting through the rubble. When he asked if there was anything he could help look for, he said, "Well, yeah. The wallet." Which the neighbor managed to find! Bucher said when he opened it, he knew "God has a sense of humor." There was one dollar left in his wallet! He said, "The Lord left me one dollar!"

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Light in the Tornado."

Believe it or not, he saw a message in that missing money: that the material stuff isn't what's important. It's the people; the lives and the faith that sustains them. There's something about a storm, whether it's meteorological or medical, or marital, or money that revalues everything.

When the drunk driver totaled our car and almost our family, when a sudden medical emergency almost took a loved one, when there was no money, I realized again that life is ultimately two lists: the things that really matter and the things that really don't. There can be "good stuff" in the bad stuff. If the loss of some "earth stuff" that ultimately doesn't really matter can cause us to "re-treasure" the lives that really do matter. Because our lists get mixed up, with the less important migrating to that "important" column and pushing out what really lasts.

Of course, sometimes the storm takes one of our human treasures. A deep grief that a few were feeling in those tornado tracks that day - and so many were feeling in the wake of the Philippines typhoon recently. I've been by the side of those who've said goodbye to someone they love. I've been the one saying goodbye. But even there, you can recommit your heart and your time to those you have left. Having lost, you realize anew the "preciousness" of the ones you still have. Having grieved, you can offer yourself to be a channel of comfort to others who grieve. Having stood at the edge of this life, you can choose to live for what will matter beyond it.

The faith and resilience of tornado and typhoon survivors brought me back to the first Thanksgiving actually. H. U. Westermayer observed: "The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these, who, nevertheless, set aside a day of Thanksgiving."

Giving thanks in the rubble. "Now that's character. That's strength." It's obvious from that survivor's comments where a lot of that strength comes from. With an EF-4 monster bearing down on his house, he knew that if he died he was "gonna be in heaven" he said. I suppose that could be seen as a wishful hope or spiritually arrogant. But I'm familiar with that kind of confidence about my life after my death. Not some fingers-crossed hope, and certainly nothing based on me being good enough for a perfect God.

No, I'm only ready to face death's storm for one reason, and in a word, that's Jesus, because He died to remove what would keep me from God's heaven. The Bible says, "Nothing impure will ever enter" heaven (Revelation 21:27). That's me. That's all of us, because the Bible says, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).

I can't get into heaven with my sin. And "no one will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the law" the Bible says (Romans 3:20). There's nothing I can do that will get rid of my sin. But there was something Jesus could do. And He did. The Bible says, "When we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). He erases our sins from His book. They will not be there on Judgment Day.

And He walked out of His grave to prove He can give eternal life. And in our word for today from the Word of God, in 1 John 5:12 it says, "He who has the Son has life." Do you have the Son? Have you begun your personal relationship with Him? If you're not sure you're going to heaven when your moment comes, would you join me today at ANewStory.com? If you're ready to live, be ready to die.