After the storm, a still small voice

In the eye of the storm, and in its aftermath, comes a surprising silence, surprising because it reveals to us that human beings still have the capacity for good. We can still reach out to our neighbour, still brave great physical danger to save a complete stranger, still speak the truth even if it costs whoever does so a few votes  in the coming elections. The source of that good and the sheer will power and determination to do what needs to be done, seems to come from within the energy itself, an energy which mirrors that of the dynamic energising love of God's grace.

The world is watching what is happening on the eastern seaboard of the USA, not just because for once it is happening to us and not, apart from Haiti and the Caribbean, to those who have learned to accept such things as part of their lives, but because it is revealing the best of what human beings are capable of becoming. In the context of adversarial politics, for example, one high profile Republican has openly thanked the President for the practical and emotional support he has given to the people of that state, a republican one. The loving kindness of God is beginning to be felt and with it courage, generosity and common sense. People are also being encouraged to be neighbours to one another, on the basis that a neighbour can do more for those living close to them than any number of rescue teams or emergency services.

These things are signs of hope. How strange it is that so much destruction has had to take place for us to realise that there is such a thing as hope - and here is a paradox worth noting, for those inclined to place apocalyptic interpretations on this event, and that is that in the fearsomness of it all, there is a kind of holy anger at work, signs of a God who is impatient for his love for us to be requited, a still small voice reminding us of who and what we are. The storm is teaching us that we are responsible for one another before him, as Christ made himself responsible and answerable  to the Father for us. The storm is teaching us that we are answerable for every human being's happiness, temporal and eternal, and for the well being of God's creation, beginning with this planet.

God's love energizes human beings for the good. This energy is his grace and it is inexhaustable. So there is reason for hope, beginning with our becoming more fully human, more generous and truthful in word and deed and more courageous, like the republican who spoke out for his political opponent. In the eye of the storm, and in its aftermath, lies the possibility for peace and reconciliation not only between neighbours, but within a nation which is still deeply divided. It was perhaps a storm for our times.