Death, Doom, and Destruction: The Week That Was

Some weeks are just plain difficult to get through. On Tuesday, Super Tuesday, of last week in our state there was plenty of death, doom, and destruction. Everyone knew early on in the day that the weather front coming through the state was likely to be a rough one. After all, it was unseasonably warm (in the 70's in early February) and deathly still. Around five o'clock in the afternoon, the tornado began its deadly path some forty-five miles west of Little Rock. According to the weather forecasters, we now know it was a single tornado--on the ground for 123 miles as it worked its way northeast through Atkins, Clinton, and Mountain View. In its path there was much destruction and twelve deaths just in our state. There were many other deaths as Tennessee experienced similar destruction.

The destruction through tornadoes had been preceded a couple of hours earlier in the day by the stock market closing almost 400 points down. The U. S. economy is still experiencing major upheavals in its financial markets due to the housing crisis, the upheaval in the bond insurance market, the high price of oil worldwide, and the subsequent losses in the financial sectors on Wall Street. "Where are we heading financially?" the world seems to be asking us.

In addition to the macroeconomic woes of the world, our life was personally impacted on Super Tuesday by the death of one of my husband's favorite uncles. Yes, he had lived a strong, good life, but the loss is still strongly felt by those closest to him.

Through all the death, doom, and destruction of the past week that was, there emerged on Monday morning a beautiful blue sky, the colorful hint of early spring flowers, and hope of renewal within the earth and within our hearts. I have lived long enough to see weeks like this come and go, and I have learned that restoration always follows periods of difficulty--thankfully for us all.