Nothing Strong Enough

Nothing Strong Enough

The storm that began plowing through a sleepy Oklahoma suburb at 2:45 on a Monday afternoon stretched seventeen miles long and over a mile wide, and for over forty-five minutes it separated houses, schools, and hospitals from their foundations; flung trucks and automobiles from the road; and uprooted trees, fences, and utility poles from the earth. Winds of up to two hundred miles per hour left a horrible, flat trail of rubble in their wake.

Storms come, turning ease to terror with the sound of a warning whistle—or without it. “God does not keep His child immune from trouble,” writes Oswald Chambers. “He promises, ‘I will be with him in trouble . . .’ (Psalm 91:15). It doesn’t matter how real or intense the adversities may be; nothing can ever separate him from his relationship to God.”^a

When the good people of Moore, Oklahoma, climbed from their storm cellars and hiding places, many had been separated from their homes. Their neighbors. Pets. Ordinary comforts they’d come to rely upon and expect. But no child of God was separated from his love.

Teachers spread their bodies over their students to spare them from the assault of flying debris. A woman with two boys—ages three years and six months—took shelter in her workplace while her children were in a day care a few miles away. They were safely reunited in a hospital emergency room.

Two network newsmen marveled at the kindness shown by neighbors and strangers, calling it “faith-based FEMA.” One said, “If you’re waiting for the government, you’re going to be in for an awful long wait. The Baptist men, they’re going to get it done tomorrow.”^b They reported cars and trucks on the edges of the highways into town, parked and open, their occupants handing out water, groceries, towels, and clothing. Ordinary people showing extraordinary kindness.

Because even the most terrible of storms is not strong enough to separate God’s children from his love.

Neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:38-39, ESV

^a Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, May 19.

^b “In Okla.: ‘Faith-based FEMA’ to be ‘huge part’ of recovery effort,” Baptist Press, May 22, 2013, http://www.bpnews.net/40357/in-okla-faithbased-fema-to-be-huge-part-of-recovery-effort.