Tuesday, June 23, 2020

Faith

There is a family of five, living in a small town in the Midwest. It consists of the parents and three kids, all boys, ranging in age from 4 to 9.  It was nearing time for the father to come home from work. The kids were sitting around watching TV while the mother was in the kitchen preparing dinner. 

All of a sudden, for no apparent reason, she starts yelling at the kids to do their chores. The kids responded that they had already done them but the mother insisted. She yelled at them, calling them liars and brats..Then she entered the room where they were sitting and started violently slapping the youngest. The older boy sought refuge under an end table but the middle boy didn't escape fast enough. His mom grabbed his arm and threw him across the room.. His head hit the corner of the TV stand and he lay silent on the floor. At that time, the father entered the house.

"Help us Dad!" The oldest boy called out from his hiding place. But the father simply plopped down on the couch and changed channels. The mother continued to beat her youngest son. "Please, Dad. Help me," he pleaded. But the father just yawned.

After a minute, he got up and yelled at his wife to be quiet. "I'm trying to watch TV," he grumbled. With that, his wife stopped the beating and went back into the kitchen. The father just sat back down.

In the aftermath, the youngest son lay lifeless on the floor, bleeding out. The middle son had a bad head injury. The elder son was not injured. He came out of his hiding place and went to his dad. "Thank you, Dad, for making Mom stop hurting us. The middle boy also mustered the strength to thank is father. And when the paramedics came, both sons told them they survived thanks to their father.

But they wondered why their little brother had to die and why their mom had killed him. They soothed themselves with the idea that there must have been a good reason that maybe they were too young to understand.

In a nearby Midwestern town residents were rushing to their basements and bathrooms. A tornado warning had just been issued. Outside, the clouds were becoming ominous and the winds were getting gusty.

A woman was alone in her home. She had no basement so she ran to the hall closet. She heard a low-pitched rumble in the distance. She began to pray, "Please keep me safe, dear Lord. Help me to survive." As the house started to crumble around her, she heard thunderous crashes and booms. But her prayers continued. She has always been a religious woman.

It seemed like an eternity, but was only about three minutes. But finally, the rumbling and crashes stopped. the lights went out and everything was quiet. The woman opened her closet door to see that two of her walls and most of the roof had been blown away.  She climbed over the rubble and went out on her front lawn. Debris was everywhere, including that which had formerly been her neighbors' homes. 

Several minutes later, the news crew arrived and saw her sobbing. They asked her about her ordeal, but all she could talk about was how lucky she was that the Good Lord had allowed her to survive. Five  others had been killed in her neighborhood, but she had only seen the Lord's blessing. Why were other good people killed but not her? She could only come up with the Lord works in mysterious ways according to his own divine plan.

Her faith was stronger than ever, she told the news crew.