Sunday, January 16, 2005
Realistic or Insensitive?
I'm typing this in the whopping town of Big Flats, New York ... while visiting my brother, wife and their three sons (all under the age of 3 years!)
I just wanted to blog in short about my drive up here yesterday. Most of the drive is US15 north, and a good part of that folllows along the west bank of the Susquehanna River from Harrisburg, PA through about Williamsport, PA. Well, there were some heavy rains here in the East over the past few days, and the Susquehanna has REALLY overflowed her banks. The water was almost to the edge of the road, and I saw SEVERAL homes (and cars!!) that were in 5 or 6 feet of water. It was SO sad and scary at the same time (especially seeing all of this on a day with gorgeous blue skies!)
I stopped at an Amish farmer's market (which had been recommended to me by a friend) about 10 miles north of Harrisburg, and while I was there, I asked the woman who waited on me about the flooding. She had a lovely Pennsylvania Dutch accent, and her response left me with my mouth hanging open. She said, "It's their own problem for building too close to the water!" That was it. She didn't have the slightest look of sympathy on her face. None whatsoever. Ugh!
Now, my initial response to her was annoyance. (I didn't show it ... just paid for my stuff and got back in my car.) I spent quite a bit of time thinking about this while I was driving the rest of the trip. I mean, yeah, these people probably were foolish to build so close to a river that could overflow at any time. Yup. But I have made MANY (and I mean MANY) foolish choices in my life. MANY!!! And it's nice when someone who recognizes that I made a foolish choice will forego pointing my foolishness out to me and just help me out with the mess that I've created. If I were left to clean up after myself every time I made a poor decision, I'd really have a horrible life. But, thanks to the grace and mercy of the wonderful people around me ... my poor choices have not ever immobilized me. And, on an infinitely grander scale, God has shown more grace and more mercy in response to my horrible choices than any human has shown ... and He is MOST in a position to respond to me with, "It's Lou Ann's own problem that she ______________. Now she has to deal with it herself." (A plethera of situations could be inserted into that blank!)
Thankfully, I'll never have to face a day where God's response to me is so cold. It doesn't mean that I will make poor decisions on purpose. Just that I have the freedom of knowing that He will work with me when I make a mess.
Okay ... enough philosophizing. Look for an upcoming post on the beauty of having twins the second time around (I'm making a list of the fun things that I'm noticing around here). There will also (eventually!!) be more pictures of the three of them. For now, you'll have to be content with the ones already posted.
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