Whole Lives in the Front Yard

I apologize to my regular readers for not posting on the blog for so long. Vermont was hit hard by the effects of Hurricane Irene. Southern Vermont was devastated and many towns there will be forever altered. Northfield and Waterbury, both in Central Vermont, were also hit bad. These past few days have been a whirlwind of activity as I have helped coordinate relief efforts and helped friends from church begin to deal with the devastation.

Tonight as I drove through a small village looking at all the ruined possessions laying in people's front yards, it made me appreciate what God has given me, and I do not just mean my possessions. Those people who were caught in the flood had no idea that a few days later so many of their personal possessions would be laying in ruins on the front lawn. Clothes, furniture, kitchen appliances, books and all manner of personal possessions were in pile after pile. The flood waters had ruined those items. Though they had once held great value to the owners, now they were simply waiting to be loaded into a dumpster and thrown away. At first glance, it would seem that people's whole lives were in those front yards.

But our lives are not just the accumulation of possessions. As bad as the floods were across our state, only a handful of people lost their lives. The vast majority of people only lost their belongings. While I do not mean to make light of the loss of one's possessions, I would suspect that if we interviewed any of those flood victims, they would all agree that having their family safe is far more important than having those piles of possessions back. Our lives are made up of the people around us whom we have meaningful relationships with. As long as we have each other, we will have our most important possessions.

For more devotionals like this one, consider Touching the Footprints of Jesus.