Home again, after several days away -- the world had not stopped spinning for my sojourn back to seminary for the symposium. Indeed, we heard the breaking news about half-way across Iowa of the terribly heinous attempted robbery and murder of five people in Norfolk, NE. Kim's brother is a pastor there at Our Savior Lutheran Church. We often travel some 45 miles of highway through the cornfields and farmsteads to do our shopping in Norfolk. I had both of my surgeries and many subsequent visits to Dr. NoseSucker there in Norfolk. Both of us grew up within 30 minutes of Norfolk. And there the robbery was attempted, and the murders accomplished. Grim news greeted our return.
It got worse. Once back home we received word that one of my dear partners in ministry, Jerry Loewe, had been in a car accident early that very morning on his way to work. God was gracious and spared his life; he suffered some serious compound fractures in one leg, but is doing well. The woman who ran a stop sign and hit him was injured more seriously, yet also survived and is recovering well.
Jerry and his wife Carol were recently Called to serve as missionary support staff in East Africa. He's expected to recover in time for their January departure date.
Friday I arose to hear my brother-in-law live on the air via US 92 FM, speaking about how one might prepare children for the new school day following the tragic murders. Due to the new national Homeland Security protocols, all the schools were in lockdown the entire day Thursday while the suspects were at large following the morning robbery. He did a fine job on-air, offering sound advice on speaking not only to children, but practical ways for the adults to manage emotions and distractions of their own in the crisis.
At the end of the hour, the DJ's even asked him to offer a prayer on air, which he did very faithfully and well. Not unusual, unless one considers US 92 FM is a commercial country radio station. Things are different here in Nebraska -- not in that we're immune to the violence and hostility in the world. Clearly bad stuff happens here too. One of the worst murder and robbery cases in the whole history of America, some newspapers reported.
But when one lives under the big skies and sees the great expanse of land all around, one has such an awe-stricken scene etched deep in the psyche day in and day out where the most impressive things we see above and below us are not the urban concrete, asphalt and steel erected by men -- but the very heavens and the earth themselves, which were made in the Beginning, and which we must all face in the End.
I wonder, sometimes, about the spirituality of geography, it's impact on the community, and that sort of 'natural theology' which arises because even "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands" (Psalm 19) here in this place. In stark contrast, one notes the violent stain of blood on the hands of men.
Such is life on the praries, today.
