"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16
Last fall, residents of Daytona Beach, Florida, experienced horrific torrential rains, crushing winds, and merciless storm surges from not just one but two deadly hurricanes!
On September 23rd, Hurricane Ian struck with a vengeance, compromising a high percentage of seawalls, as well as the foundations of many residences located along Daytona Beach. Six weeks later, Hurricane Nicole arrived over the ocean: her strength was no match for many of the already compromised structures. As a result, many homes, condominiums, seawalls, and pool decks collapsed into enormous piles of concrete rubble.
South Daytona Beach Shores has been a treasured Palka family destination for many years. Last month was my first time returning to our beloved Daytona Beach since the massive hurricane destruction. When I first drove in, I was hopeful, as much of the destruction was not detectable from the roadside and things did not appear as dismal as I had imagined. Many of the buildings and homes looked fine from the street. However, once we were able to walk the beach and see these structures from the ocean side, the devastation was absolutely gut wrenching as well as heartbreaking. For some homes, the erosion left houses balancing on cliffs of sand, while the back sides of other homes were left in a heap of rubble. There were even a few eerie situations where the front of the house looked totally fine, but powerful winds had removed the entire back walls of the home, thus revealing the entire house's contents to all who walked by.
As my brain and my heart tried to comprehend what my eyes were viewing, numerous thoughts were going through my mind. First, what a powerful visual for the beloved hymn that states, “On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.” In addition, I was also reminded that just like many of the buildings in Daytona Beach, from the initial presentation, we humans can also look pretty good. We can deceive ourselves by attractive appearances, prestigious jobs, good deeds, and generous donations. But when we take a closer look, it is obvious that sin causes some internal damage in all of us, and we in need of serious repair. In addition, we are not able to fix the enormity of our sinfulness on our own.
Fortunately, we have a Heavenly Father that loves us so much that He sent His Son, Jesus; He is the only one capable of fixing the destruction that sin causes. Motivated by His tremendous love for us, Jesus repaired the damage caused by our sin by going to the cross so that so that we can have eternal life.
As we continue through this Lenten season, may you have great peace knowing that through your faith in Jesus, you have experienced a personal "spiritual extreme home makeover", and He has done all of the necessary renovations to remove and forgive your sins.
Have a wonderful week, knowing that Jesus is our hope in any storm that we face.
In His Love,
Mrs. Palka