A wedding in Christchurch

I'm amazed still at what a turning point in all our lives Katrina was.

Spent time with some pastors last night at a party and at our table, as we tried to get to know each other, the inevitable stories began. Where we were. What we did. How hard it was. How hot it was. What we came back to.

Six years later, almost, and we're still talking refrigerator smells.

When we came back from Hurricane Katrina, I remember a meeting with somebody or other and they told us it would take 10 years to begin getting over the storm. I thought them addled. I was already getting over it. I was marching on ... right up until my employer made me move to the north shore of New Orleans, leaving our home of 14 years, and our daughters who stayed there on the West Bank.

My wife, Mary, still is getting past that. Ten years probably isn't going to do it.

I imagine that the persons in New Zealand this morning are being told things along those line. Ten years. Repairs of buildings. Repairs of lives.

It's what the heck we do. We live on by the grace of God. We pick up and start over.

And it has nothing, nothing to do with our virtue or our morals. Nothing.

Jesus talked about this notion once. He said, "Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way?  I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

I read that to mean, "stuff happens." We all fall short. We all need a savior. We all must repent. Towers fall and towers don't fall and hurricanes come and hurricanes turn and we all need to turn to Jesus in a big way regardless.

I read this this morning: "In a bright moment amid the misery of New Zealand's earthquake, a woman rescued from the quake zone has gone forward days later with her planned wedding. Emma Howard was rescued Tuesday after her office block collapsed in the 6.3-magnitude earthquake in Christchurch.  On Friday, she went ahead with her marriage to Chris Greenslade. When she was trapped, Howard managed to contact Greenslade on her cell phone and get him to direct rescuers to where she was. The couple didn't speak to reporters at the ceremony Friday, but Howard told Radio New Zealand on Tuesday that going ahead with the wedding was a sign the disaster could not break people's spirit."

A wedding in Christchurch. Seems quite appropriate, does it not? I pray they remember the wedding, not the being trapped, 10 years from now.