Nashville's 500-Year Flood

Well, obviously if you live in Nashville and you're reading this then you know about the flooding. For those of you who live outside of Nashville there's a large chance that you've not heard ANYTHING about it, given the other big news stories this week (i.e. the bomb scare in NYC and the oil spill in the Gulf). They're saying it's the kind of thing that happens only once every 500 years. Let me just tell you...it was awful. Not for us; our house is on a hill so we were just soaked for two days straight, but our best friends suffered from flooding on Saturday, got some of that cleaned up, and then were flooded worse on Sunday. Their house was like an island in the middle of a river. Two other families we're close to had major damage as well - one had 9 feet of water in their basement, flooding their HVAC, and another family had 1 foot of water in their entire house. Many other families from our church had big problems, and thousands of families in the area lost EVERYTHING. The shelters are full, one of our two water treatment plants is flooded putting us on a water restriction, and downtown and major tourist areas (including Opryland Hotel) are flooded and will require lots of money for reconstruction, as well as loss of income while they rebuild. I've never seen anything like this. I HAVE been really, really impressed by the way Nashvillians have stepped up to help out their neighbors. I'm so thankful Grant is self-employed as he was able to give up much of the first part of this week to help our friends who needed it. I can't go to dangerous sites and clean up because of the kids but I've been able to take meals to friends. I haven't heard of any looting or rioting (I did hear of one break-in but that might have happened anyway).
(The interior of Opryland Hotel)

Yesterday we took breakfast to our best friends, the Duprees, who were the ones I mentioned earlier who got flooded twice. On our way back home Maggie asked, "Why did God make it flood and let so many of our friends' houses be ruined and people die?" It really surprised me because she's only four but I was actually really glad to start that conversation. I feel like a lot of Christians (including myself) grow up thinking that if you love Jesus and be a good person then you'll pretty much have a good life. And then when life crashes down around you as it inevitably does, your world and faith is shattered. I tried to tailor my response to a four-year-old's level and so I just said that I don't really know why God let it happen (I don't think he MADE it flood), but this world where we live isn't perfect but that's why we need Jesus to save us and one day we'll get to live in heaven where there are no floods and no sickness or death. I think she understood as well as a bright four-year-old can, but I know we'll continue this conversation for lots of years.

Anyway, please pray for everyone living in the Nashville area. It's going to take a while for my favorite city to get back to normal.