Tragedy in Paradise

 We are entering the second week since wildfires swept through Lahaina on Maui.  The painful reports from Maui continue.  The death toll stands at 114. Children, parents, families, tourists, trapped in an inferno at a least suspected place in a least suspected moment.

 Like many we have been to Maui and visited Lahaina.  We have treasured memories of the “aloha” and “mahalo” island, palm trees swaying in a gentle breeze, waves cresting upon the shore, luaus on the beach at sunset.  It doesn’t take long to travel the island, including the Haleakala Crater and the road to Hana where we found Charles Lindbergh’s remote grave overlooking the ocean.

 This tragedy strikes an especially painful chord.  How could this happen in such an idyllic place?  The deadliest wildfire  in the U.S in more than 100 years.  

 This week tropical storm Hillary lashed southern California with high winds, mud slides and flooding.  Like Maui, we have been there. We visited San Diego six months ago, relaxing at Mission Beach, strolling through Balboa Park, listening to the street musicians, shopping and dining at Embarcardero.

 My wife grew up on the coast of Texas, at Freeport. When she was 12, Hurricane Carla struck her home on September 11, 1961. Winds reached 173 mph.  The storm was so intense the weather Bureau retired the name “Carla,” never to be used again for an Atlantic hurricane.   Her family fled to east Texas for safety.  When they returned, they drove through miles of devastation with bloated cows lying in the fields. Their home was flooded with 3 feet of saltwater. They had to rebuild and start over.

 The deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history remains the Galveston storm of 1900.  An unexpected hurricane struck the island on September 8 and left more than 6,000 dead in its wake.

 Jesus was clear that disasters, both natural and manmade,  would continue on this earth (Luke 21).  He was also clear that these tragic events would affect the just and the unjust, the good and the evil, (Luke 13:1-5).  So how are we to respond?

 When his disciples encountered a man blind from his birth, they asked Jesus, “Who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?  Jesus responded, ‘It was not that this man sinned, nor his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” (John 9:1-3).  Jesus then proceeded to heal the man who was blind.

 This gives us a clue about our response when others suffer inexplicable disease and disaster. We must enter into their grief, share their sorrow, pray for them and do whatever we can to help. Most of us can give. There are numerous charities.  We should choose one we trust and give what we can. Every little bit helps those who lose everything when disaster strikes.

 We are to place our trust in the One who overcomes every adversity and gives to us life eternal. We must be like the man in Jesus’ parable who built his house upon the rock. ““Therefore, everyone who hears these words of Mine, and acts on them, will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock,” (Matthew 7:24-25).