Pray for Miracles and Tender Mercies

The current wrath of Hurricane Katrina is a vivid reminder of how susceptible we all are to Mother Nature. Whenever there is a natural disaster (or mandmade), though saddened by the devestation, I am always happy to hear of those miraculous survivor stories.


In the April 2005 General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Elder Bednar presented a beautiful discourse on the tender mercies of the Lord. (General Conference is a weekend event,twice a year when leaders of our church present timely gospel messages). For example, he referred to the tender mercy when a sister received the last letter (or was it an email?) from her husband had just been killed in Iraq. It touched this sister that the letter stated "I'll see you again". (In the LDS Church, we believe familes can be ETERNAL and FOREVER. We believe that we WILL SEE loved ones again). So the timeliness of this letter was a great comfort to this sister...it was a tender mercy. After the last General Conference, we talked lots about tender mercies over at Nauvoo, w/folks sharing examples of tender mercies that they had witnessed.

After 9/11, one another tender mercy that I have read about in a tiny blurb in USA TODAY occurred when a WTC widow returned to the site. The car her husband had been driving was located, and there was something for her in the trunk. It was her birthday gift! It had been in the trunk of the car. As I recall, this lady's birthday was either on 9/11 or shorthly thereafter. The tender mercy to this lady was that despite the horror of losing her love, despite the tons of WTC debris, someway, somehow, Heavenly Father allowed that birthday gift to survive. Apparently this lady just cried, took the gift and left. When I read that blurb, I had a few tears as well.

So in every disaster, it is good to read of survivor stories. Usually there are some. Remember after one hurricane a few years ago, there was a baby who was found in a tree? After last year's tsunami, it was wonderful to read of some of these stories. For example, I read about a toddler who was going under the ocean but luckily his dad saw his big toe and grabbed him just in time. Another special story was a couple who died in the tsunami...however a few months later, their camera was found intact. The pictures were developed. And this couple's adult children were able to view the last days- filled with happiness- of their parents.

So all of us are thinking of those in New Orleans and all the surrounding states who have been impacted by Miss Katrina. I am sure that thousands of people have lost all of their possessions, including all of their pictures, etc. I know that dozens of people have perished. According to the news, the good news is that the hurricane wind didn't go further west. If the wind had veered to the west just a tad more, supposedly New Orleans would have been totally demolished (though it seems pretty darn close to approaching this at present). As the rescuers go to locate survivors, I hope and pray that they can find as many people as possible. I hope there will be some good survivor stories, some tender mercies despite this dreadful act of nature. Hang in there victims of Katrina!