I have heard reporters describe the scenes they are covering as instances of "total devastation." The destruction wrought by these storms is indescribable and many towns and families are devastated...but total devastation? I think not. In order to be totally devastated, one must be robbed of all hope. There have been plenty of pictures and stories in recent days that tell the story of human character and strength even in the midst of unspeakable sadness.
One such scene occurred in Henryville, Indiana at 9:00 a.m. on Sunday morning. The Catholic church in the town was largely spared by the storm that hit the community and the faithful of that parish...and of other denominations as well, gathered to worship and to pray. From the time that the storm had passed, the volunteers in that church had fired up the grills and stoves and ovens and begun to prepare food for anyone who needed it. A community that was licking its considerable wounds was also counting its blessings and caring for one another. When people care for one another like that, even the worst devastation is not total, because there still is hope.
I saw an interview with a man in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. His home had been destroyed. He was talking to a reporter about what he had seen and heard as the storm approached. As he told of how everything he had was gone, his voice began to crack. Nearly in tears, the man said, "I've never asked anyone for nothing in my life." He walked away from the camera a few steps and with a look that seemed to be a mixture of hurt, anger and outright defiance he said through clenched teeth, "...and I'm not going to start now!" This man had suffered devastation that hurt him to the very depth of his being. Yet, as long as he had the strength of character to say that he would prevail over his circumstances...as long as his spirit was unbowed, the devastation was not total.
Major Robert Marchanti of the Army National Guard was murdered by a coward in Afghanistan who shot him and a fellow officer in inhuman and incomprehensible retaliation for the accidental burning of some copies of the Koran. During the years in which we lived in Baltimore, MD we had the brief pleasure of being acquainted with him as our youngest daughter's P.E. teacher in elementary school. Maj. Marchanti was in Afghanistan for the purpose of training Afghani security forces so that they could provide a secure future for the people of that nation. Last Christmas, he told his wife, Peggy, that he was encouraged by how well his charges were progressing. He wanted to do something for them to show his gratitude for their hard work. His wife had heard that there were a lot of almonds in the region, but that the men didn't have anything to open them with. They had to resort to cracking them open with their shoes. Mrs. Marchanti boxed up a bunch of nutcrackers and sent them to Afghanistan as gifts. Barely two months later, on February 25, her husband had been killed. To have someone you love murdered by those whom they were trying to help and those to whom you had shown such kindness would certainly be devastating. She harbors no rancor toward the people among whom her husband was serving. She and her family are heartbroken, to be sure; their loss is devastating. However, as long as they have, as Martin Luther King, Jr. said, the "courage to love," that devastation is not total.
Whether the challenges and heartaches we face are meted out by the forces of nature, illness or the cowardly acts of other human beings, God has given us the capacity through His Spirit to grow beyond the hurt and reach for that which heals. As long as He reigns in our hearts, no devastation is every total. Plenty of people have set very good examples for us in recent days. May we have the good grace to pray for them and the good sense to follow their example.
