Calamity

an With the terrible disaster this past week in Japan, I had to somberly reflect on just how seemingly little power we have over things as awesome as the forces of nature. Storms, pestilence, famine, tectonic shifting, the list of things that have forever brought death and destruction upon the inhabitants of this world can be seemingly endless.  Especially as of late, it isn't difficult to be worried, apprehensive, even afraid, when we are constantly bombarded with disaster after disaster.  Are these signs of things to come?  Is the end really near? Many, if not all of us, have let these questions flit through our minds as we see images of cars, buildings, and debris swept away as flotsam and jetsam through what was once a quiet Japanese town.

 These are terrible tragedies. My own heart aches for these people, and I can't imagine the horror of facing such a cataclysm.  The silver lining, however, behind every calamity that strikes a people, is what happens around the world.  People of all nations, tongues, and dogmas come together to the aid of those afflicted.  I truly believe it is in times of darkest woe that mankind shows its greatest virtue.  As hundreds of thousands rally to the scene of a disaster, bringing aid, supplies, support, and love, I think we start to get a sense that maybe we all are really family.  Maybe these divisions we live with, be they political, societal, monetary, or religious, don't really matter in the long run.  Maybe that is what is meant when the apostle Paul spake "that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together with love."

  I pray that we will all remember our brothers and sisters around the world who need our support.  I pray that someday, perhaps, humanity will truly, finally, become as we only briefly glimpse in times of strife:

 A family.