A balm for the spirit

It's still hard to believe its only been days.  We've now heard the most tragic and gut wrenching of the stories from this week. We've heard our friends, or co-workers or fellow church members recount their direct experiences of those terrifying hours on Monday. Especially in this area, our hearts have been heavy and aching as we learn more of the full range of human experiences that happened on Monday and we've been saturated in those stories. While I feel its just as important to connect to the most tragic of stories to lay a portion of that sorrow on all our hearts, I know we also long for healing stories, of life, of goodness, of restoration, of healing.

This story was a balm to my spirit and if you need to hear one of those right now this is a great one:

http://newsok.com/oklahoma-tornadoes-the-big-dog-the-little-boy-and-the-hug-that-triumphs-over-tragedy/article/3833468

Its not a perfect story. I know for this little boy and his parents the perfect after story would of been to run out the rubble to his parents arms but they weren't close enough to get to him immediately. His neighbor came running to the scene of his school, a neighbor that he already had a deep connection with. I love the beauty in this little boy's healing journey starting immediately. That this little boy was able to find a familiar and comforting face and could run quickly into the burliest and strongest of arms he knew. I can only speculate that the feelings of shock and fear were washed over if even for a moment with a flood of some sense comfort and security. I am thankful that this is not the only story like this, its one of many. I love that this hug not only provided healing in that moment its also providing healing now to so many others.