Some yellow still lingers in the eastern sky this morning, but blue is coming. Brown fir needles and green moss decorate my garage roof, and pink flowers are beginning to open on my tulip tree. What a colorful day this is promising to be!
It is colorful from where I sit anyway. Spring always is. But further north I doubt the color of springtime is even noticed. I can hardly imagine what it was like to have a mountain side break loose and bury twenty percent of a towns population. Today, residents of Oso, WA still await word of family, friends and acquaintances who are not accounted for--at least thirty-eight missing and eight confirmed dead in a town of 200.
The numbers of searchers and support personnel is absolutely amazing. So is the amount of money and other donations. But the battle has just begun. Survivors will be located, and bodies will be found. The mud will ultimately be removed, and the highway well be rebuilt. New homes will go up, and demolished ones will be hauled away.
But the people, Lord. What about the people? How do they cope with all that? How do they keep the darkness and the bleakness of tragedy from moving in?--a darkness that not only wants to consume the mind, but also the emotions.
Only you can do that. Only you can ward off darkness and despair. Only you can use this cataclysmic event to touch lives. You know the broken relationships, haunting memories, fears, angers, guilt, and loss that need healing. You, only you.
But Lord, may your people help. Open the ears that will listen in silence so brokenness can speak. Open the mouths that will speak words of comfort and hope as your Spirit prompts, and open the hearts that will patiently love this hurting community no matter how long it takes. It will be a long, slow, process.
Lord, may spring return to Oso as it experiences your strong yet gentle hands that never let go..
Jan
( The number of missing people continues to rise)
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