Going House to House

We had a pretty heavy round of storms come through tonight as many of you know. There were tornadoes touching down all around the counties around Nashville. Many homes and businesses were destroyed and there were quite a few people killed. They started about 3:00pm on Friday and really started rolling in to our town around 4:00. That's when the hail started at least - about 4:15. I shut down my computer at that time, and turned everything off and went to be with everyone else in the other room as we watched the weather on the news and the rain, wind, and hail outside. We rode through that first wave and then Anita and I went to the kitchen and made some dinner together, which was a lot of fun.

While I was praying before dinner, Conner piped in with "and their houses" - referring to the houses that were already being shown on the news that have been destroyed. After we started eating, he looked up and said, "We need to go house to house." Anita and I both looked at him and kind of at the same time said, "What? What are you talking about?" That's when he said in all seriousness, "We need to go house to house and fix their houses." Wow, I tell ya. Kind of hits you when you hear a 4 year old that has that much compassion and recognition of the world around him. Just from us having the news on - even though he was running around and playing and looking outside most of the time - he was aware of the damage and realized how devastated these families are that their homes were destroyed.

As a parent, you can't help but be proud. As a christian, you can't help but evaluate yourself and think, "Man, do I measure up to a 4 year old?" I mean, most of us as adults immediately feel saddened and our hearts go out, but realistically, how many of us think inside, "I'm glad that wasn't us" as our first thought. When, shouldn't our first thought be, "How can I help them?"