Life On a Thread
How fragile is our hold on life at times. How thin the thread tha we live on in this world that is far larger than we are and far more powerful.

Those were my thoughts earlier today as I watched the coverage of Hurricane Rita on TV. A levee breach in New Orleans refilling parts of the city. "Too much water coming much too quickly" is how the CNN reporter put it.
Downtown Houston a ghost town on a normally busy weekday morning.
Stone seawalls built in Galveston after the great hurricane of 1900 looking like they may not be high enough for Rita.

It isn't just Rita, of course. We had some major storms move through the north Twin Cities metro area on Wednesday with schools closed as a result on Thursday, lots of electrical outages, and a man killed by a falling limb. In a few months we will hear about winter weather in various places. There will be fires in California. Mud slides. Tornadoes. Perhaps earthquakes.

The governor of Texas says that we were prepared so "we will get through this."

Yes, but.... it is only a fragile getting through. I have written about it before and I hate to sound so pessimistic, but we have to have a certain reality about it. In the long run it is a tenuous hanging on that we have. The powers of nature are far more powerful than we can ever be. Katrina, Rita, the Tsunami- take your pick- they remind us of our weaknesses.

Humility is a proper response. Humility will keep us from getting overconfident and expecting perfection. Humility will remind us that in the end it is not about us as individuals, but about us working together to support and care for each other in light of powers beyond us.

And turning to The Power that I believe will be with us no matter what. May God's grace always be in mind and in the place of need.