Whenever I am asked where I’m from, I usually tell people, “Me and Toto are from Kansas.” You remember Toto, don’t you?? The cute little dog that belongs to Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. You have to understand that if you grew up in Kansas, it’s part of the fiber of that state to watch that movie. I always liked the Tin Man for various reasons, and I recall watching that movie as a young boy on television. When I saw that tornado for the very first time, I can still remember my realization of the fear and destruction that they can cause.

There were MANY times growing up in Wichita, Kansas that we would hear the sirens and head for shelter. Oftentimes the sirens were only precautionary, and we felt like we were hiding in the basement for no good reason.

This week in Greensburg, Kansas, a small community in the southwest corner of the state, the sirens were for real. One of the largest tornadoes ever recorded completely destroyed this city, and after looking at the picture above, the amazing thing is that only eight people were killed. I do not take lightly any of the deaths of the eight, but when one looks at the photograph above, it seems to me that thousands could have died.

The explanation for this is that MANY people who had heard these sirens MANY times before, perhaps a thousand times before, still decided to go to their shelters, basements, and underground bunkers JUST IN CASE a tornado actually did hit, and SURPRISE…. IT ACTUALLY DID HIT, with such force and power that the devastation was overwhelming.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, please pray for the people who lost everything. Pray for those whose family members died. Pray for those unsaved, that perhaps they will turn to God during these trying times, and pray for all who will have to rebuild and start over again. Unlike Toto and the Tin Man, this is NOT a make believe story. This is reality.

And for us???? We need to realize that even though we’ve heard the warning a thousand times before, one day the Lord Jesus Christ will, indeed, return, and the only ones that are going to be saved are those that are hiding in the shelter of His love. Will you not heed the warnings that we read about over and over again in the Word of God that Jesus is the Lord of Lords, and that one day EVERY knee will bow and EVERY tongue will confess that Jesus is, indeed, Lord of All?