The Wind/The Spirit

United Methodist Church, West Liberty KY [FEMA photo]

Can someone really "pray away" a tornado?  I spent last Wednesday through Monday (March 7-12) in Eastern Kentucky, visiting the counties devastated by the outbreak of deadly tornadoes there on Feb 29 and March 2.  A local woman, caught on video "praying away" the tornado from her house, has become a local celebrity.  The video has gone viral, and has been picked up by several news organizations covering the destruction near West Liberty, Kentucky, and edited into their own video stories.  The woman happens to be a neighbor of the man who is the Clerk of Session at Ezel Presbyterian Church.  (Ezel is about 15 miles west of West Libery.) When I met with him, he didn't claim that his own house was spared because of her prayers. The pastor of Ezel Presbyterian Church doesn't claim that either.  Instead, the small congregation is concentrating on their own and their neighbors' recovery, and vigorously objecting to anyone who claims to know the "reason" why storms destroyed some (the Methodist Church for example) and not others. 
There isn't anyone in all of the close-knit communities of Eastern Kentucky who hasn't been affected by the storms, whether or not their own possessions were damaged or destroyed.  Disasters are like that.  In the midst of tragedy, the face of God comes from the face of friends, neighbors, colleagues, volunteers--anyone who shows up with an offer of care.  We can't claim to know why God allows these happenings, but we can stand in solidarity with those who have lost so much and declare that God certainly knows what it means to suffer. We know this because of Jesus.