Nature's Song

Over the last few years, it seems as if our world has suffered from more natural disasters than ever before.  We have watched our TVs in horror as graphic images of earthquakes and tsunamis have flashed across the screen.  We have gazed in amazement at images of hailstones as big as baseballs, or even bigger.  We catch our breath when we see the effects of those devastating hurricanes that have destroyed New Orleans and other parts of the U.S. coast.

This spring, some of the natural disasters have hit us a lot closer to home.  Millions of dollars worth of crops have been flattened and property has been damaged by hail storms throughout our state.   Downpours have caused flash floods in several areas.  Huge tornadoes nearly obliterated the communities of Beaver Crossing and Pilger, and damaged many rural homes, as well.

Two tornadoes touched down within roughly a mile of each other.
Photograph: Dustin Wilcox/Reuters

I've found that I can't quite rid my mind of the images of those terrifying twin tornadoes that devastated the town of Pilger and the surrounding area.  I spent the first nine years of my life in northeast Nebraska, in Bloomfield and Norfolk.  I still have aunts and uncles and numerous cousins who live in the area.  Even after my family moved to Fairbury, in southeastern Nebraska, I remember Pilger as the town where we finally turned left, off of Highway 15, toward Norfolk.  When we reached Pilger, we were almost there!

But, to 350 people, the town of Pilger means so much more.  It is the place where they live and work, where they attend school or church.  It is home.  And now, everything familiar is just gone, demolished in the span of two or three minutes.

We can't help but wonder why God allows such disasters to take place.  Yet, in the aftermath, we can see God at work in the survivors, and in the surrounding communities and states, as neighbors and strangers have joined together to clean up the town and begin the long process of rebuilding.  We see God's love expressed by scores of people who have donated their time, money, and supplies to help residents who have lost nearly everything.

We see God's work in the people of St. John's Lutheran Church, whose building was totally destroyed, but who joined together on Sunday, anyway, at the nearly empty church property, to worship and celebrate communion with their church family and some of the volunteers who had come to Pilger to help.  I suspect that some of those worshipers hadn't set foot in a church in quite some time.

I've noticed that God often uses natural disasters to draw people closer to him.  And, as a result of the horrible event that changed their lives forever, many people come to realize that the stuff they lost doesn't matter nearly as much as the people who survived the storm with them.  And nothing matters as much as the one fact that God loves them throughout their ordeal, and promises to stay with them, no matter what.

On the first Palm Sunday, some of the Pharisees asked Jesus to rebuke his disciples for praising him so loudly in the streets.  Jesus replied with these words, found in Luke 19: 40: "If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out."  Isaiah 55: 12 states that "You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands."  Psalm 69: 34 says, "Let heaven and earth praise him, and seas and all that move in them."

I think that natural disasters, such as the tornadoes that nearly destroyed the town of Pilger, are the earth's expression of praise to the God who created everything.  We stand in awe of nature's song, even though we don't always like the results.  Sometimes, we need to be reminded that God is in charge.  Sometimes, God uses disastrous situations to draw us closer to him.  Sometimes, he enables us to join all the earth in praise to him, even as we experience the awful wonders of his creation.

The following song is the result of my musings about the recent devastation in Pilger and throughout the world.  Click on the arrow on the picture at the bottom of this blog if you want to hear this song.

Nature’s Song                

Tornadoes twist and writhe and destroy.
The whole earth quakes at will.
Where is our peace?
Enormous waves crash, and giant rocks smash.
When will this devastation cease?
Volcanoes erupt; tsunamis swirl;
Icy hailstones batter the earth.
Soft breezes turn into monstrous gales,
Demolishing all that has worth.

Chorus 1:  When we are silent, the rocks will cry out.
                  The mountains and hills will burst into song.
                  All heaven and earth will praise the Lord,
                  And mighty seas will sing along.

Wildfires burn our trees and our homes,
Consuming all that we love.
Beloved pets are lost; people are killed.
Finally, in our anguish, we cry out to God above.
Though mountains may depart and hills are removed,
God’s love will never cease.
The Lord has compassion on all his afflicted;
We will not be shaken; He offers his peace.
We will not be shaken; He offers his peace!

Chorus 2:  Oh, Lord, we raise our hearts in praise to you.
                  We sing with the mountains and the hills and the seas.
                  We shout with the heavens, applaud with the trees.
                  Oh, Lord, we raise our hearts in praise to you.