Good morning…

Hurricane Matthew has affected the lives of millions this weekend. The messy photos of wreckage from high winds and water tug at our hearts. Chaotic. Uprooted. Torn apart. We all lift prayers for the rebuilding of rummaged lives.

Even inland here in Atlanta, the ripple effects are everywhere. Eerie skies and windy rain. Horrendous traffic traveling north and west. Cars with Florida license plates line our street as neighbors host loved ones forced to evacuate. On Thursday night, our basement full of fifteen-year-old boys welcomed one extra, a friend of a friend from Jacksonville. Yesterday a dear friend of mine hosted an elaborate, last minute wedding for two hundred people in her beautiful backyard, a change of venue for a wedding scheduled to take place on Sea Island, a hard hit haven on Georgia’s coast.

People come together at times like these. We help. We support. We provide relief. We do exactly what God handcraft humans to do.

“Be fruitful. Multiply. Fill. Govern. Reign.”

Firmly attached to the vine of God, we serve others fruitfully. Love and joy. Peace and patience. Kindness and goodness. Gently and faithfully, we control our selfish urges to put first the needs of others. In the midst of tragedy, the LORD’s presence multiplies within us, before overflowing through us to fill the earth. We govern with God. We reign with our Redeemer. Faced with a fiasco we dig deep down. As we help those hurt by life’s devastating hurricanes, God becomes more real.

You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and I have appointed and placed and purposefully planted you, so that you would go and bear fruit and keep on bearing, and that your fruit will remain and be lasting… (John 15:16, AMP),

…Sue…