With today’s news headlines regarding the COVID-19 virus, a person must remind himself that in the end love will prevail—and not just God’s love. Time and again we humans rally, sharing to one another our love. Case in point is the reaction to the flooding of the Red River in Grand Forks, ND in 1997. I’ll recount this story as told by Robin Silverman, a first-hand witness, in an article in the Minneapolis StarTribune dated May 13, 2007.
Overcome by spring flooding of the river, much of the town of about 50,000 was under water. Just when Robin feared the worst for her own home, buses loaded with strangers began appearing.
“What on earth are you doing here?” she asked one man. “Don’t you have your own home to deal with?”
“I just watched my house go under,” he said. “Maybe I can save yours.”
In the days that followed, many hundreds of volunteers showed up to clean out the toxic muck from basements. Others offered to sit with people as they dealt with the tragedy. Most food and household goods were available for the asking.
National attention brought loving support from afar. McDonald’s heiress Joan Kroc donated $15 million that benefited thousands of families. A tanker filled with beef brisket arrived from long distance, sent by Texas Lil. Farmers baked potatoes, and the local Burger Kings provided orange drink. About 10,000 exhausted people had dinner at the University of North Dakota football stadium.
A consortium of churches and synagogues that had initially prayed for $100,000, got off to a great start with a stranger’s $40,000 donation. Two months later a $2 million check came in from an anonymous group of Iowa farmers. This was matched by Lutheran Brotherhood. But just as meaningful in their own way were the donations of quarters taped to Post-it notes from children that said, “I hope you get better soon.” All told, a marvelous example of man helping our fellow man transpired.
But our current viral pandemic demands a different kind of response from that of the flood. We’ve been told we must remain “socially distant.” That doesn’t mean we can’t use our creativity to Live our Love Large, remembering, of course, that we love because “God first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)