God Grant Us Love

I realize that once again I digress from my stated goal, but some things are just too important to ignore. I am thinking about remarks made by Pat Robertson on the unimaginable tragedy in Haiti. God is not an Olympian, full of malice and anger. He is our Father and creator full of love, forgiveness and grace. The earth was created to respond to the laws of physics and one of those laws is that two sources of matter cannot occupy the same space, so that when two great continental plates collide, something has to give and give it does at it's weakest point. The weakest point this time just happened to be in the very poor, beleaguered country of Haiti, nothing more. To bring it to a personal level, my husband was injured in a trucking accident 36 years ago. He should have been killed, but by the grace of God he was spared and only suffered a back injury that left him paraplegic. Now I know some people will think "in a wheel chair for the rest of his life, how is that an only". It is an only because it left him able to love and raise five children, find a different way to contribute to society, and brought out a great (that is great not famous) human being. It allowed his family and those around him to become aware of the value of life and to be more loving, giving, and forgiving. When he passed it left a great hole in many lives but because of him and his great example, we stop and help instead of turning our heads and rushing on. It has softened our hearts and expanded our minds as to what people, no matter what circumstances they are in, are very important not only to society, but to their eternal maker. Many people have been killed and injured in Haiti, but with our loving help, they will rise above tragedy and become a closer knit community. The loss will hurt for a long time, but they as a people have survived worse-slavery-and risen above it. But they can not do it alone. They need help, real and tangible. The best help they can receive from us is money donated to a responsible charity. I donate through my church and know that it will be used through local groups already existing in Haiti. I know that it will provide shelter, clothing, blankets, food and water through these groups. Other charities that I know of are the Red Cross and the Salvation army. Both Fox news and CNN have set up sites on the web with lists of responsible charities you can donate to.

As I said on my last blog, I love people and even though I know none of these people, my heart breaks for them. The last thing these people need is an influx of foreigners that know nothing about the country and their needs. Stay at home and support the professionals that are there. These people are industrious and work very hard for the little that they have. Give them time to get their heads around this disaster and you will find with the proper leadership, they will recover and perhaps be better off than before.

Another thing we can do is pray. It doesn't matter the religious differences and it doesn't matter the language the prayer is in, nor how great or simple it is; petitions to God are never ignored.

The last thing I want to say is THANK YOU to Ambassador Joseph for the eloquent response you gave to Pat Robertson's remarks. I don't think people here have heard much about the slave rebellion in Haiti and it's consequential effect on America. At the time this remarkable rebellion occurred the US was a slave holding nation and repressed reference to it because they were afraid of the repercussions that it would cause here. Thank you for letting us know
about a piece of world history that directly affected American History

Me