Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Massive, Terrible

I was just reading this morning the latest news of the cyclone that hit Myanmar -- 22,500 are currently confirmed dead, an additional 41,000 are missing, and hundreds of thousands are homeless.

These numbers are staggering to me; I can't even imagine 22,500 people being dead -- each an individual life, created in God's image, with loves and fears and hopes and dreams and family and friends. T w e n t y - t w o t h o u s a n d.

Not to sound insensitive, but it brought to mind how much Hurricane Katrina rocked the United States in 2005. With a death toll of around 1,800, our nation was stunned and people looked around for all sorts of scapegoats (the government being the most convenient). Yes, each of those 1,800 people was also created in the image of God, with loves and fears and hopes and dreams and family and friends. I do not minimize the loss. But I don't think we can comprehend a death toll 10, 15 times that large.... and still counting.

I really pray that God keeps my heart soft so that any loss of life remains tragic to me.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Amen. I think I saw this headline at the header of my gmail account yesterday, but I didn't really believe it...and then I forgot about it. It's so easy to be disconnected from the world if I don't hear about it from multiple sources. Takes awhile for me to be willing to let it sink in.