Mayor Has Perfect Response After Tornado Devastates City: 'God Has a Plan'
In times of crisis, devout Christians will say that our answer lies in turning to God. But what does that mean down here on earth when devastation hits?
Most of us, thank God, will never know what it feels like to face destruction from a natural disaster.
Wetumpka, Alabama, Mayor Jerry Willis isn’t one of those people. He watched his town get devastated by a powerful tornado.
According to the National Weather Service, the twister hit with winds between 120 and 130 miles per hour on Saturday.
Wetumpka Survey Update: PRELIMINARY high-end EF-2 (120-130 mph), 300 yards wide. Rating based on damage near the 2 churches on Bridge St. *Survey is still ongoing.* #alwx
— NWS Birmingham (@NWSBirmingham) January 20, 2019
The Elmore County town was devastated by the storm.
Here are a few photos from our survey. These were taken near the First Baptist & First Presbyterian Churches on Bridge St. #alwx pic.twitter.com/Zid719jmkI
— NWS Birmingham (@NWSBirmingham) January 20, 2019
Mayor Willis said that among the buildings damaged were the police station, the town’s historic First Presbyterian Church and a senior center.
The senior center was destroyed, according to WFSA-TV.
The station also reported that a number of buildings in the town were “destroyed or significantly damaged,” among an estimated 35 homes in the county that saw damage. Fortunately, only one minor injury was reported.
“It’s tough. It’s tough,” Willis told WFSA.
“When you love a place like we do, and we’ve worked so hard to move this city forward, and to be devastated like this, you know, we just have to recharge our batteries and go back and redo and put it all back together again,” Willis said.
However, he knows there’s a higher authority involved in all of this.
“God has a plan,” Willis said. “We don’t always know what God’s plan is always, but we’ll come together as a community and we’ll be better. I promise you we’ll be better because of this and it hurts.”
There are, of course, temporal matters to attend to for the mayor, particularly the bridge that crosses the Coosa River in his town.
“I’ve contacted the state. We will have the inspectors, and we’ll look at the bridge,” he said.
“We don’t know if this tornado, if part of it came under the bridge, so structurally we don’t know. We’ve asked them to come inspect the bridge and make sure it’s safe before we open it back up.”
But beyond that, his message seemed to be simple:
Trust God’s plan, as much as it may hurt.
In trying times, it’s easy to blame God or ask him for immediate restoration. These are very human emotions, obviously. In the end, however, what matters is having faith in His plan.
No, it isn’t easy. All of us know that. We’ve all hit bumps in our lives, some larger than others. In the end, though, the Christian has to trust God and His ways.
That’s easy enough to say, but what can you feel when a roaring tornado blows through your town?
What happens when homes and senior centers are destroyed? What happens when the rhythms of town life are inexorably altered by a twist of fate?
It’s easy to look at verses like Jeremiah 29:11 — “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future'” — and believe that these plans involve safety from all disaster. That isn’t the case, but that doesn’t mean disaster won’t benefit us — if we have faith.
In times like these, when reflecting on God’s plan, it’s perhaps wisest to remember Paul’s words in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians: “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.”
In times of difficulty like this, the Christian is called to bear witness by perseverance, by trusting that the provision of God will be sufficient.
Mayor Willis summed the situation up in two words: “It’s tough.”
But through God and His believers in Wetumpka, we know that His plan will mean greater days ahead, which will bring comfort to its residents and glory to their Maker. For now, our prayers are with them.
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