This past week has grieved my heart as I’ve watched the news stories of Hurricane Katrina and so many stranded and hurting people. The devastation is phenomenal, with ramifications that will last for years to come. It will take months, perhaps years before New Orleans and surrounding cities rise to what they used to be.

Yesterday, as I was doing some weather research for my wip (work in progress), I came across another hurricane disaster that rocked this nation. In our lifetime, we think Hurricane Katrina is the worst thing to ever hit this country. History does not agree.

At the turn of the 20th Century, in 1900, another hurricane destroyed much of the Gulf Coast in Galveston, Texas. Nearly 8,000 people died. Loss of life and property were very much like they are today in New Orleans. Until Hurricane Katrina hit, this Galveston hurricane was considered the worst natural disaster in United States history.

In 1900 there were no weather satellites, no Doppler radar. But even with our technologically advanced warning systems and various dykes or seawalls, we cannot control the wind or rain. At best we can warn people to move to higher ground and hope they can flee in time.

It’s sobering to think how little control man has over the elements, over our world. Even our prayers can’t control God or make Him do for us as we ask.

But we can come to Him with contrite hearts and invite Him to become a part of our nation once again. We’ve done a lot to try to kick Him out of every part of our public offices and educational systems, and our very lives. Then when something like this happens, we tend to ask where He is and why He let it happen.

Was this a sign of God’s judgment on the earth?

One day Jesus was told about some people who were killed by the governor and others who were killed in a tower accident. Some wanted to point fingers at those people and exclaim at what sinners they must have been for God to have allowed such a thing to happen to them. This was His response:

“There were present at that season some who told Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answered and said to them, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.” Luke 13:4-5 NKJV (Perish eternally, not just physically.)

So was this God’s hand of judgment on the earth? Not yet.

When natural disasters strike, as they will in abundance during what Revelation calls the tribulation, that will be God’s hand of judgment. Right now is His time to show mercy and grace – even in the midst of such horrific things. Judgment will one day come, but until then, the best we can do is to point people to higher ground, to seek His face.

“For He is not willing that anyone should perish but that all should come to repentance.”