As the rapture predicted for last Saturday did not come off, my silly mind wonders how many people "taken up" in the Joplin tornado thought the rapture was just 24 hours late. I don't mean to treat a tragedy lightly. Sunday's tornadoes were one of the great disasters in the history of our country. My thoughts, prayers and a Red Cross donation are all directed towards Joplin. My Grandfather Ross was born not far from Joplin and I have always had a soft spot for the city although I've never been there.
I have thought in the last few days that I am grateful that we do not have big time tornadoes in Arizona. Every state in the continental United States has had a tornado. As a kid, I remember seeing one about a thousand feet up above our house in Northern California. Technically, I am led to understand that it is not a tornado unless it touches the ground, but that one sure impressed me. I saw another tornado, a real one, in Shreveport, Louisiana. It just looked like a very dark cloud that reached the ground. A few years later, high in the mountains of Utah, I saw the results of one that twisted mature pine trees in every direction and left quite a swath. Again, I was impressed.
I've been lucky where natural disasters come. Aside from the aforementioned tornadoes, just one small earthquake, a few hailstorms, some big snows, pneumonia and that's about it. I sit, watch the Joplinites on the TV and wonder how I'd react if my home and everything in it was gone. I'm not sure. I'm grateful that hasn't happened and hope it never does, to me or to you. Hang in there Joplin.
Blessings.
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