It Takes a Funeral

As we have many mornings this last week, today we watched news coming from Haiti. Horrible, horrible devastation there.

A lot of today's stories, however, were focusing on the rescue efforts, success stories, areas of need. It has been mentioned so many times that relief efforts are coming from all over the world. In fact, I have a friend from high school that is a nurse and she has volunteered to go. I know because she put out a Facebook plea for other nurses to join her (its an organized program with her hospital, she isn't just hopping on a plane).

It struck me that she, as well as others, will be working side-by-side with folks from who-knows-where. Possibly folks from countries that don't like America very much. I thought how it takes a tragedy to bring the world together.

Kind of like a funeral does for a family.

How many times have you attended a funeral and saw people that you haven't seen in years? Probably had any number of opportunities, just didn't prioritize it enough to see it through. We've all heard stories of a funeral healing a rift in a family. Maybe a parent passes away and siblings that have been feuding for years suddenly can't really remember why or over what.

It sometimes takes death, destruction, devastation to begin the process of hope, healing, rebirth.

While I would never, ever, wish on anyone the events that have taken place in Haiti since January 12, I can pray that there is some good that comes from it.

I could wish that world leaders would see how the ordinary citizens of their countries reached out in a common mission of help and healing and maybe rethink some of their own policies towards each other. I can pray that maybe the led will become the leaders. That someone, somewhere, will extend a hand of peace to another or change their views about an entire group of people.

I'm not saying the Palestinians and Israelis will suddenly make peace but maybe some other groups can.

Kind of like Rodney King said so many years ago, "Can't we all just get along?"

And if so, why do we wait so long to make the effort? Why does it take having something snatched out from underneath us before we realize how much we have and how good our lives are?

And why do we have to keep learning this same lesson over and over and over?