Last night my wife and I kept switching between the major television stations in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, watching the various reports on all the tornadoes that suddenly broke out and were wreaking havoc.
It is not unusual to have so many tornadoes spawned in North Texas, as it was only a few months ago counties to the south of Dallas and Fort Worth had the same thing happen.
What made the most recent round of tornadoes exceptional were their locations, which were in heavily populated areas: Glenn Heights, Garland, and Rowlett.
The latest death toll has been amazingly low—only 11 so far—given all the devastation and, once again, where the tornadoes touched down and cut long paths.
Of course, there is the usual misapplied verbiage, such as calling the low death count a “miracle,” to try to conceptualize what took place.
Then, there is the feeding frenzy of the media, all of whom love these kinds of events, since they seem to think it gives them a sense of meaning where otherwise they have none.
Surely, Don Henley had it right when describing the media’s coverage of human tragedy when he wrote Dirty Laundry:
We got the bubble headed
Bleached blonde
Comes on at five
She can tell you ’bout the plane crash [substitute tornado damage]
With a gleam in her eye
It’s interesting when people die
Give us dirty laundry
That said, there going to be many good things come out of all the death and carnage from last night’s tornadoes.
First, neighbors in Glenn Heights, Garland, Rowlett, as well as those throughout the Metroplex and beyond, will finally get to know one another.
It is unfortunate that it took EF3 and 4 tornadoes to blow down the fortress walls that so many erect to prevent human interaction between neighbors for them to learn one another’s names, at least, but now that it is done, they will now be able.
God bless those new relationships.
Second, many found out just how fragile life truly is and how puny they really are in the grand scheme of things.
From frantic interviews of enduring 30-seconds of absolute hell on earth and not knowing what to do, to absolute bewilderment over the fact that a friend has suddenly died underneath a pile of rubble, thousands of people received reality checks last night that will turn out to be blessings in disguise.
Finally, and speaking of blessings, many will be transformed from spiritual death unto spiritual life because of the roar and devastation of the storms.
God will use those things to draw His elect unto Himself, whereby they will be saved, forever.
And for those who understand that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose, they will see this apparent tragedy in panoramic view and praise God, rather than curse or question Him, as many of the unregenerate inevitably will.
So, it was a wild and woolly night in Texas last night, which was not all that unusual, even though no one can fully prepare to be confronted by a cloudy monster from the sky suddenly sweep one’s house away in a manner of seconds.
But, amid all the chaos and confusion, which the Bible describes as the result of what happened when humanity initially walked away from God and the creation now “groans” for both human and creation’s redemption, much good will come of it.
Neighbors will get to know one another, many received reality checks, and God will redeem some.
They are things the media will never report on, nor would it care to, as they ignore God’s bigger picture and dwell on the “dirty laundry.”
