Remembering...

Changing the look of one's blog is an exercise in letting go of comfortabilities. It's easy to get comfortable in the way things are, or the way things always have been, and change can come at some discomfort (if you didn't notice I changed my blog's template -- it was difficult, but I managed).  This is a good thing, right?  I'm only talking of a blog template and not the hard things in life.  Many in our area are dealing with a lot of change.  Temporary housing, finding a new/replacement vehicle, grieving over people lost in the recklessness of tornadoes.

I'm just reminded this morning that while we've moved on to life as usual, many are still picking up the pieces of shattered lives.  Houses can be replaced, cars inevitably will be too, but life is irreplaceable. While we disregard the loss of material goods with a flippant wave of the hand, empty encouragement of "you'll get more stuff" and the promise of a FEMA trailer, many of the homes destroyed perhaps had tiny hand prints in concrete patios with a date of when those reminders were pressed.  Just like a song can bring to mind a vivid memory, our homes are where our parents mark our growth on the door frames of our bedroom, the lawns in which we indented with knees and elbows learning to ride our first bike, or the stair case where our pictures were taken with date at arm on prom night.  The material possessions all too often are treasure chests full of jeweled memories of our lives which are now being buried in beaches of rubble.

Take time today to remember those whose lives haven't resumed a sense of normalcy yet, and to some degrees will never.  Pray for those who are still sifting through the pieces of their lives, thankful they're still alive but wondering where the road before them leads.  Be a comfort to a neighbor... or a neighborhood whom you've never met or never lived.

The love being poured out is a testimony to the goodness of God in His people in the midst of devastation. Let us take time to remember and to pray.