Exacting humility

As I write, New Orleans has about 9 hours until the storm of a lifetime will hit their fair city. Fair for now. They'll get back with us all on that in 24 hours. On the radar I see a very fierce storm headed for the city. In one interview today, the lady said she was going to stay with her daughter, who presumably could not leave for financial reasons, and die with her if need be rather than leaving and coming back to bury her daughter. I understand. The mayor was warning people to leave town for the past 24 hours saying, "This is the big one." On radar it does appear to be the mother of all storms.

I have this feeling when I watch this storm approaching. It is the same feeling I have had before. It is the feeling that I get when I think of a recent event over which I had no control. I can only bow my head in the humility of knowing that nothing can stop devastation. I bow my head because prior knowledge is so useless if life wants to exact devastation from someone or a group of people. People in Thailand know this from their storm of last December.

I suppose the lingering question in all of this is why the Creator of the universe and the creator of weather on Earth wants to exact humility from people be creating devastation that cannot be stopped by human means. I really don't have the answer for that one. Perhaps it follows the "first shall be last" principle. Or perhaps it has to do with which eyes one wants to see life out of, physical or spiritual. Those are only 2 guesses that could apply. I would hope that there is an answer. In the meantime, I bow as "the big one" bears down on New Orleans. Being borne down on will definitely make a person bow. I will be bowing with many others in about 24 hours.