Momservation: God gives us darkness so that we may see the light.
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I will never complain about California again.
As my son and I watched on television the horrific images coming from Moore, Oklahoma yesterday after an F4 tornado ripped through the suburban town just like ours he asked, “Mom, could we ever get a tornado here?”
“No. Not like that,” I reassured him.
I knew that’s all he needed to hear. But as we watched rescue workers try to find surviving children in the flattened Plaza Towers Elementary school—another tragedy seeming to target our children in a place they should be safe—I felt the need to elaborate to reassure not just him, but myself that this kind of horror could not land on our doorstep.
I went into a long, rambling explanation of meteorology and tornado risk factors for the Midwest as compared to where we live in the Sacramento valley. I felt like if I distracted him with talk of Canadian cold fronts and Gulf of Mexico high pressure zones the dumbfounding and heartbreaking pictures and video of Mother Nature’s horrific potential would seem improbable to touch us here. Where we feel safe.
But as we’ve come to find out from places like Sandy Hook, Aurora, Boston, New Jersey, and now Moore (hit twice by catastrophic tornados in 15 years!), where man-made and natural disasters have darkened their doorsteps…nowhere is really safe.
As parents, our number one priority is to keep our children safe.
Our number two priority is to make our children feel secure by sheltering them. From the elements. From hunger. From thirst. From danger. From reality.
So even though I know it is truly all in God’s hands, that my children’s safety is really at His mercy, I can at least shelter them.
And yesterday that meant reassuring my son that a tornado wouldn’t flatten his school.
Today, it will be something different. Tomorrow something else. It could be as simple as the security of knowing Mom will be home waiting for him when he gets home from school. It could be something complex like explaining why a ten year-old girl would be executed for her brother’s gang affiliation (SacBee 5/21/13). Whatever it is, I will do everything in my power to make sure my children are safe, secure, and happy.
That they are sheltered until they are sturdy enough to become someone else’s shelter.
Amidst the destroyed physical shelters of Moore, Oklahoma many uplifting stories and images of human (and animal) perseverance, compassion, and support have risen. I will use these inspiring stories to help fortify the shelter I have erected around my kids. They will feel secure in knowing that even when things seem impossibly scary and dark, goodness and hope can always be found to the light the way.
Like this amazing video that will move you to tears:
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50147264n
To donate $10 to the Red Cross text REDCROSS to 90999.