The prophet Isaiah described God’s commitment to Israel and its people. God assures people that He continues to be among them. With the Israelites, there was a moment when they felt abandoned - but we know how, with great tenderness, God took them back. With His ever enduring love, God took pity on them.
As I read Isiah’s words portraying God’s seeming abandonment of the Israelites, their slavery in Egypt, and the destruction of their temple and homes, I asked myself if those words could bring any comfort to all those impacted by the tornadoes.
The scenes of destruction are almost unbelievable until you hear the human cry and despair, the mother holding a child in each arm, one died and one survived.
The tornado destruction that has uprooted lives and homes is so pervasive that many could ask where was God? Many have asked that same question from the beginning of time.
In times past God spoke words of encouragement through the prophets but in this our day He sent us his only begotten son to clear a path for us through this valley of tears. Both John the Baptist and Jesus acknowledged that we humans will face mountains and valleys that will obstruct our walk, holes that will deter our march to salvation.
Words spoken today in Luke’s gospel are meant to assure us that despite the destruction that we encounter, the hurts and pains to our psyche, God sees in each of us a greatness that even John the Baptist did not possess. As Jesus noted in the gospel today, John’s importance cannot compare with the privileges enjoyed by us who have entered the kingdom of God through the preaching of Jesus.
What did you go out to see? Jesus asked that question of people who came out to see John the Baptist. If asked today in areas engulfed with destruction, hurting souls will be seen but also charitable souls assuring those hurting that God has pity on them and has come among them through those who are there to serve.
