I grew up in a large desert city where the only season I knew was HOT.
Floods and thunderstorms were no concern of mine. The plans I made were never interrupted by the weather, and "cold" was when someone left the refridgerator door open for too long.
So when this happened...
I was a little taken back! The fact that people still live where floods happen hadn't really occured to this desert girl.
But then something else happened:
People came! LOTS of people. Some of them I knew, some I didn't. But together we worked with one focus in mind: to hold back the flood. Growing up in a city where we barely knew our own neighbors and had never been in any real need of their companionship, this was new to me. I had never experienced a community pull together so QUICKLY and with such determination to accomplish their goal!
The Bible says in Galations 6:2 that we are to "bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ". I was impressed by the meaning this took on when 100+ people were acting it out.
On Monday a storm with class 1 hurricane winds blew through Taylor. It knocked down several trees and took out part of the fence.
Again I witnessed the community pulling together with a unified purpose. Trees were cut up and limbs were dragged away. Fence post holes were dug and new fence put up.
There is something precious about community.
It pulls us together.
What is interesting, is how quickly a sense of community is lost when there is no flood. No storm.
No trial.
It is those 'catastrophes' that make us realize how we need one another.
Differences are thrown aside when work is at hand.
I wonder, if we would find a more consistant sense of community if we were more actively involved in bearing one another's burdens.
Even when there is no storm.
~Anneliese
