Today, I heard Big Texas’ song on the radio, “God Blessed Texas.” The song, released in 1993, says, “God blessed Texas with his own hand, brought down angels from the promised land.”
At a later point in the song, it says, “The Lord works in mysterious ways.”
As I sit on my back porch watching the sunset over the little lake behind my house, I would have to agree with both. God blessed Texas and the Lord works in mysterious ways. It is August 30th, days after Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas. Last Thursday evening, after a very intense day of work, the boys and I made a late evening trip to the grocery store. School had been cancelled for Friday and Monday because Hurricane Harvey was approaching our Texas Gulf shores. I thought that I would fill the car with gas and grab some bottled water, just in case. I found that the grocery store was out of both.
The boys and I debated what was and was not classified as a “hurricane essential”. Having gone through Ike 9 years ago, my biggest concern was losing power. I wanted to be sure that we had enough non-perishable food. I noticed that Little Chirp felt anxious when our cart was filled with packaged foods that I normally do not allow in our house. He asked, “Are we not going to have vegetables anymore?”
I reassured him that this was just temporary, and I told him that it would be fun to eat a little junk food. He was reluctant to get on this bandwagon. Early Saturday evening, I would make the statement that they cancelled school prematurely, and Little Chirp would say, “I think we over planned.”
I admit that I was annoyed with the media coverage for hyping up a storm that basically led to my children missing two days of school and us being without eggs, gas and ground beef because there had been a run on these items at the grocery store thanks to all of the media hype. Then on Saturday evening, the tornadoes came. I never want to hear the sound of an emergency broadcast alert again. I can do a lot of things as a mother; I can’t really protect my children from a tornado.
All night Saturday, the rains came, and the devastation began. Our house never came close to flooding. I remember standing out on our balcony on Sunday morning, watching the water rise and thinking to myself that I was alone, and that I had to protect my boys. I was scared. I wasn’t sure what to do. We spent the day eating all of the junk food that we had purchased on Thursday. By early evening, Brainy Bird was unable to move thanks to a massive stomach ache induced by the junk food that we never eat. I felt stressed out. In seven years of being on my own with the boys, we have never needed stomach medicine. There is none to be found in our medicine cabinet.
I reached out to my closest neighbors for stomach medicine. Within minutes, we had a neighbor getting out in the crazy rain and wind to drive stomach medicine over to us. Little Chirp was ready to make the run to their door step, all he had to do was pop right outside our house and they were there. Brainy Bird felt better almost immediately. That evening, we hung out with our neighbors, and I realized that I am far from alone. I stopped feeling afraid, and I spent my time praying for those in harms way.
Our couple of days of Harvey is beyond trivial relative to tens of thousands whose homes were flooded or completely destroyed. First it was the homes and businesses along the coastlines where the storm made landfall, and then it was the endless rainfall. The storm resulted in more rain than any other hurricane in history. Flood waters devastated the city of Houston and the surrounding areas. All over the city, people were trapped in their flooded homes.
That is when the angels came, and we were all reminded that the Lord works in mysterious ways. The angels did not fall down from the skies. Many lived among us, many came from the east with their boats. Many came as part of the “Cajun Navy.”
Strangers helped strangers for just one reason – they were able to. Houston is the most diverse city in the United States, and with the help of our surrounding areas and Louisiana brethren, we showed a nation how we can come together in a crisis, putting aside all of our racial, cultural and religious differences. Within hours, rescue stations were set up to locate those in need of assistance, and a huge task force of volunteers were dispatched with their own boats to go and help those in need.
The state of Texas stood together, and we stood strong. The city of Houston stood together, and we stood strong.
It is far from over….
As I am sitting here watching the beautiful sunset, some homes are just beginning to flood. Even though the rains have stopped, water is spilling out of the reservoirs to their homes. Countless others are homeless as they wait for the waters to recede. The rain has begun for those on the Texas/Louisiana border. A toddler is in the hospital recovering after she was found shivering, clinging to her mother’s floating body in the flood waters. A family is dealing with the lost of their parents and four beautiful children that tried to escape the flooding only to be swept away by flood waters and trapped in their family van. A sister is morning the lost of her twenty five year old brother who was electrocuted when he tried to go and check on her flooded residence.
It is going to take a long time to rebuild and an even longer time to heal from the devastation that Hurricane Harvey has caused, but in the end, the state of Texas and the City of Houston are going to be even stronger than they were before this all began. Texas and the City of Houston have set an amazing example for the entire nation that we can all come together in peace and look out for one another.
Please make a donation to the Red Cross relief fund, and please pray for the residents through out the many cities of Texas that have been impacted Hurricane Harvey’s devastation. And do not ever doubt that…
God Blessed Texas with his own hand, brought down angels from the promised land.
AND
The Lord works in mysterious ways….