I am not skilled to understand
What God has willed,
what God has planned
I only know at His right hand
Stands one who is my Savior

The words from Aaron Shut’s song My Savior My God gets me every time I hear them. I am not skilled to understand devastation and loss and I don’t think I ever will. What I have come to realize through all my experiences is that God doesn’t always want us to know, but to simply trust.

Many Tennessean’s lives have been completely turned upside down. Floods have wreaked havoc or have touched the lives of just about everyone in this state. Every minute every hour, headlines are updated to read “Flooding death toll rises to 18”, “ Nashville braces for more flooding as Cumberland River swells”, “Mayor asks all Davidson’s Co. residents to conserve water”, and this list keeps pouring on.

According to Wikipedia, a flood is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land. Flooding may result from the volume of water within a body of water, such as a river or lake, which overflows or breaks levees, with the result that some of the water escapes its usual boundaries.

Sure, we all know the definition of a flood, but something about the part of “escapes its usual boundaries” has captured by attention. Boundaries, according to Merriam-Webster.com, are something that indicates or fixes a limit or extent.

As I stated before, I am not skilled to understand devastation and why it occurs. It breaks my heart continuously to see lives lost, businesses lost, homes lost. My boyfriend’s family business is a complete loss. The family has spent 30 to 40 years building a business to see it washed away by water escaping its normal boundary.

But what I have experienced by all this devastation is people are too “escaping their usual boundaries”. People no longer see a stranger and pass by; they risk their lives trying to save one another. Age, race, and gender is non existent; we are all one big family united by the desire to help one another.

Wikipedia further stated that, floods (in particular the more frequent/smaller floods) can bring many benefits, such as recharging ground water, making soil more fertile and providing nutrients in which it is deficient.

I know our flood in particular was not small on any scale and from what I can tell did not provide any benefits. However, God’s glory always shines through any tragedy or loss. In the natural eye, we cannot see the benefits throughout this devastation, but I believe He can. He sees love being demonstrated on a continual basis. He sees strangers becoming friends. He sees good people being exposed and honored instead of the bad that are constantly shown in the media and He sees racial barriers being dissolved. Whatever His plan was for all of this, we may never know. Maybe He needed us to come out of our comfort zone and spill over our boundaries for the sake of love and realigning priorities; again, we may never know.

Just as the waters recede and the restoration process begins, individuals too begin the restoration process. The damaged will be assessed and repairs get underway. As hard as this may be for people to process, God is still with us. Psalms 139:9-10 says, “If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there Your head shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me.”

It is my hope that after the pain of this devastation subsides, we can see the benefits of the storm through His eyes.

Love in Christ,
Nichole