Becky's Katrina Reflections

I'm watching roses being tossed into the 17th street canal here in my city. Each rose represents a life lost in the Lakeview area of New Orleans...my old neighborhood. Today marks one year since Hurricane Katrina hit our area. I'll never forget watching as Katrina was forecasted. When our local station's meteorologist began to relay the news that Katrina was headed our way, she began to cry. I remember thinking how odd it was for a weather forecaster to get that emotional over the weather. That chilling moment was a foreshadowing of many tears to come.

I cried a lot those first few weeks, and have cried many more times over the past year. Here we are a year later, and some days the tears are far from over. But you know what? Hope always rises to the top of the puddle of tears. Even on those days when the tears seem like an ocean, Hope's ship is still sailing, and guess who her Captain is? He's the Only One who has seen my deepest sorrow and most regrettable mistakes, but still welcomes me freely. He's the One whose arms I've run to with my sorrows time and again, and the One whose held me through storms before. So when Jesus reaches over the side of His ship of hope to catch me and pull me in, I welcome His embrace, I hold onto Him with everything I am, and I cherish those moments because it's then He's holding me closest.

Thank God for the ocean of tears, thank God for Katrina, and thank God for the chance she gave me to crawl up in His lap, with nowhere else to go, and see His face in a wonderful way.