About a week ago life changed for regular people across hundreds of miles of Kentucky, Arkansas and Missouri. Homes were destroyed. Nearly 100 lives were lost, and that number is likely to continue to grow.
The blessing of the family home was torn apart.
One man said, “I felt like I was going to die. I didn’t think we were going to make it out of here.” That of course is a feeling no one should have when sitting in their home.
“We were out in the pouring rain looking for bodies,” a lady named Kaitlyn told a reporter. She found seven members of an Amish family in the neighborhood, they had all been killed.
It was one of the strongest tornadoes to touch down in the US in many years. And yet, when you look closely you see that those who survived are thankful.
Neighbors are helping neighbors, and folks are drawing together to find the strength and unseen blessings that follow such a tragedy.
Most of these personal tragedies don’t make the news. But they really do happen every day.

When John Wesley was 5-years-old the family home was destroyed by fire. Sometimes I think people don’t understand how long ago Wesley lived. This was February 1709. It was at a time when fire in a home normally meant destruction, and most likely death for anyone trapped inside.
Wesley, his mom and dad, a couple of servants, and seven siblings all escaped the fire. Their home was destroyed.
A servant, whose name was Betty, grabbed Charles, who was a toddler, and escaped out a window. She told John to follow her, but John didn’t. He went back to look for another way out of the fire.
The fire continued to grow, and the family members outside were convinced John was killed. His father, a pastor, was leading prayers that little John would be in paradise with Jesus. But, finally John poked his head out the window, and two neighbors climbed up the side of the house and pulled him to safety.
John would later write about that memory of home. He believed, as his mother declared, that he was saved by God for a reason.