Apison, Tennessee

   Earlier this week, a series of tornadoes touched down all over the south. We even had a warning here on the coast of Georgia where we live.

   One of the more deadly ones caused widespread damage and at least 8 fatalities in the small community of Apison Tennessee, east of Chattanooga. We lived there from 1978 to 1995 and raised our kids there.

   The closeness of it all came home to me as I read the locations that were mentioned on the news reports. We lived on McGhee Rd, we ran on Clonts Road, we biked on Loundon Lane and Bill Jones Road. One of the persons interviewed for a news report out of Chattanooga was Ronnie Sedman, who was our neighbor just east of us on McGhee.

   We have been gone for 15 years, so how should I feel about all of this? Relief that our family was not there? Sorrow for those whose lives are gone or changed drastically?

   How should we see the hand of God in all of this? God was not surprised that all of this happened. He is still in control. This is easier to say when we are many miles away, but, I'm sure, much harder to process when we are in the middle of it. It is also much easier to say that some good will no doubt come out of this tragedy, when we are not directly affected.

   God is in control of the past, present and the future. Hard to see sometimes, but true nevertheless.

   God, help me to trust in the rightness of your acts.