1963
“I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.” Genesis 9:15
“We had man from the corp of Engineers in town this week and he said that he was expecting to see the kind of flooding we saw in 1963.”
There was a hush in the group that stood around after church talking. Some of their faces turned hard, and their necks began to redden. The woman’s voice had rung out like the prophetic words of a prophet empowered by the Spirit’s sword slashing deep into their hearts. In that moment, or rather an eternity of a moment, the scenes and tapes of the worst flood in the Mississippi’s modern history resounded in their souls. They were survivors.
Sometimes our body language speaks louder and more truthfully than our words. In that Kodak moment on some deep level, those in that circle were communicating on levels the conscious mind often misses. As their eyes began meeting, there was a sharing of the painful history that made them one, acknowledging their painful past, and the foreboding prophetic present.
In retrospect, if that moment could have been frozen in time, and we were allowed the luxury of reactivating those inner tapes like Hollywood does, there would be devotional books much like this one from which to learn and draw our own conclusions about inner strength, courage, personal sacrifice sheer fortitude. However, these moments are not frozen in time, only lived out and shared as individuals, families, churches and communities.
That moment, was like a picture within which the secrets of the Grand Canyon are revived. For a geologist, this could mean a lifetime worth of exploration and learning. For me, that small gathering of believer was simply a composite of tens of thousands survivors from the Mississippi Valley.
Lord help us to hear with our eyes and hearts the cry of desperation others share with us. Amen
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