A new wind blowing...

knocked the wind out of my sails.
On 6/14 I flew to Kansas City to celebrate my eldest granddaughter's wedding.  The next day several of us drove up to North Iowa; I was to spend 2 weeks with my sister there.  On the second evening a Tornado struck the area.  Homes were lifted, shifted, smashed...a cow ended up a mile away calmly eating in a pasture.  Power was lost for a day or so...destruction I've seen before but never actually owned.  Every year we lived there (20 years until 1994) we watched tornadoes all around, narrowly missing us.
We enjoyed a great day on 6/16, and then the wind began as we sat at supper, joking about the meager shelter they'd never had to use until that night: a 6' sq. well pit.  I feel it literally saved our lives (3 of us).  Strange how the plan played out:

1.  God knew exactly when and how the storm would occur.
2.  God made sure we had that safe pit.  (I relate to Joseph and the pit in Genesis)
3.  Knowing we were in the Father's care but shaking with weakened faith during the
      storm.
4.  Living with seeing the destruction and dealing with it.  It doesn't all 'sink in'
         immediately.
5.  It's 8 days after and I still feel shaken.

My sister and husband lost much of their house, barn, and out-buildings...they're not able to restore enough of it.  My heart breaks for them.  But through it all we're absolutely confident God loves and cares for us.  Satan has been causing destruction of all kinds since Eden...and causes it still.
Photos of the well-pit....

 

 

A day or two after, I sent her this email:

In indicting and disciplining the wicked, do His children sometimes feel it?  I thought of “the rain falls on the just and the unjust”…occurred to me He may have sent that storm for the wicked in N. Iowa; some of the just were in the path.  When I think of His great love for His own I think He will replace, reward, renew for them.

I found another verse that says (or implies) His angels go ahead of Him when He is in the storm.  He was there with us that night.  We were spared. Your mobile is His.  He can replace it or renew it as He sees fit.  I praise Him that you and Frank chose that spot and that home for you to enjoy all these years.  I think of so many in the Bible that were ‘uprooted’ and moved about, of saints and missionaries that have given up and moved about.

I love you so, and still not near as much as He does.

 

Do you want to be healed?

John 5:6  The account of the man by the pool.

When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?"
 
If Jesus had stood at Keith's bedside and asked him that, I think he would have said, "No."
He had lived in pain and increasing disablement for 30 years.  He wanted to be rid of it, an end to it.  I can't imagine what healed for him was; I doubt he could either.
 
The man in the John account had lain alongside the 'healing' pool for 38 years.  How could one have any hope after that long?  Notice he didn't answer Jesus' question, but instead replied, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going, another steps down before me.”
This had been how his days had gone for his life.

Did someone ever carry him away for a time?  Did a physician ever attend to him there?  Was medicine brought to him?  Who helped him with bathing, feeding, deficating?
Was his hair and beard ever cut in those years?  How did he deal with stray animals?
He may have outlived his parents, probably had no wife or children to care for him.
Were there other invalids laying alongside the pool?  Who covered him in winter?
 
Even though the man didn't answer Jesus' question there's a hopeful ending.

Jesus said to him, v8 “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” v9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked."
 
How much life did he have left...what did he do with his life from that hour on?
As always, I have more questions than answers.