If you were to ask me what the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen was, my reply would not be someone out of a magazine or any of the exotic beaches I've been blessed to go to. My reply would be quite astonishing to most, and maybe even a little bit ridiculous to some. The most beautiful thing I've ever seen would absolutely be the week of March 9 through March 19.
Those 10 days would probably be the last thing most would think of when they thought of the word "beautiful." Our town got demolished, houses were destroyed, and sentimental items of so many people were lost. Not to mention, many families were displaced, and still are to this day. All because of a flood.
Monroe, Louisiana received just shy of 27 inches of rain water. Not including the rivers and bayous that overflowed because they just could not simply hold all of the excess water. From the outside, I'm sure it probably looked devastating, and it was; but at the same time, it was beautiful. I saw the beauty of a community. I witnessed numerous amounts of people gathered around sand piles bagging sand bags just to ensure that others houses would not be lost to the rising water. I saw churches in the area, living out the Gospel and being the hands and feet of Jesus. I saw old, young and many from all different backgrounds come together and become one for the sake of others. And for the first time in my life I witnessed how God can turn a disaster into something beautiful.
During the course of all the flooding, I got the opportunity to hear a story that brought tears to my eyes and sent chills down my spine. As we were walking through a neighborhood that had been ruined to the core, handing out food to the ones effected by the flood, we met a lady who was so excited to tell us what the Lord was doing in her life. She gathered us around in her carport to tell us that a month before, in February, God had revealed to her that He was about to be doing something big in her life, as well as the lives of others around her. So she began to pray. She began to pray for God's will to be done and for his plan to be carried out. She never expected the "big" thing that God was going to do was bring a flood to Monroe. But then she told us that God followed through with his plan. She proceeded to tell us that although the houses to her right and left, and all around had about 12 inches of water in them, her house did not get one speck of water damage. To be honest, for a minute, I had to think about it and let it sink in because that was just impossible, right? Wrong. That was just God. And as the group of about six or seven college students and I walked away from the house, there was one common phrase that we just could not help but saying: Wow, God is good.
So the next time you find yourself in the eye of the storm, just remember to keep looking up to the one who created it.
