Staff writer Simon Gonzalez reports from Joplin, Missouri, where a devastating twister ripped through the town on Sunday, May 22.

On Saturday, the world didn’t come to an end. People (including many Christians) laughed when “Judgment Day” fizzled. No rapture, no earthquakes, nothing.

On Sunday, the world did end for 160 people when a massive tornado ripped through Joplin, Missouri. No one laughed this time.

Life and death were just a block away.

On one side of the street there is nothing. Houses are gone, replaced by piles of broken mortar, splintered lumber, and twisted metal. Life was snuffed out in a few terrifying seconds.

On the other there is little damage. Houses are intact. Life goes on.

On the one side, the horror of eternity without Christ for those who didn’t know Him at the moment disaster struck. On the other, a second chance.

Jean Shouse is one of the “lucky” ones. She and her husband, Frank, huddled in their home as the storm raged. But they were on the fringes of the mighty winds. Their house was damaged; they were spared.

“We thought about how gracious God was to us,” Jean said. “We thought we had it bad, and then I saw what happened just a block away. There is sadness for those who lost their lives.”

It was a familiar feeling for Frank.

“I felt the same thing in Vietnam, when there were rockets coming in,” he said. “I thought, ‘There’s nothing I can do. If I’m dead, I’m dead.’ If God wasn’t so merciful, we wouldn’t be here right now. God isn’t finished with whatever He has for us to do.”

“Experts” sometimes point to terrible storms like the ones that hit North Carolina and Alabama in April, and the one here Sunday, as evidence that the end is near. After all, didn’t Jesus say that in the latter days “there will be famines and earthquakes.” Surely tornadoes come under that general category.

Jesus seemed pretty clear on the subject in Matthew 24, after His disciples asked Him about the end of the age: “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

He reinforced the lesson in the parable of the 10 virgins, which concludes with words we all would be wise to heed. “Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour.”

The 139 people who lived in the devastated neighborhoods did not know the day nor the hour. We can only hope they were on the alert, that they knew Jesus before the end came.

It’s too late for the 139, but Samaritan’s Purse is here for those who have a second chance, who have seen with their own eyes that life can end in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. We want them to know Jesus, His love, His sacrifice, His resurrection, His offer of forgiveness of sin, His promise of eternal life.

Samaritan's Purse , United States , Life and Death

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