I was awake early on Monday morning, and, yes, I checked my social media feed early.  My friend Rich had just posted.

5:30 Major gas explosion just behind my house at 4:45am. Flames, no exaggeration, hundreds of feet in the air. We’ve been evacuated, together with the whole street. All OK, including kids, cats, bunnies, etc. Prayers appreciated!

Rich is a pastor and a good friend and valued colleague.  What was this about?  I went over to my news feed, and, sure enough, there were early reports of a major incident just across the Ohio River from Beaver, PA, where Becky and I had lived for ten years.  You may read a news report here.  Short story is that too much rain led to a mudslide and the mudslide took out a newly installed 24-inch gas pipeline and gas explodes.  Thirty houses were evacuated, among them Rich’s and his family’s.  No one was injured, though property was lost. Fortunately, not Rich’s.

On Tuesday, Rich posted again.  It was a thanks for all the expressions of support, but more. As he does so well, Rich looked at things from the perspective of a well-lived life.

Thanks everyone for all the texts, phone calls, offers of food, shelter, clothing, etc. It is humbling to realize how many people would willingly invite a family of six (!) to live in their home! We are home and fine. Don’t need a thing; don’t seem to have suffered any kind of damage to our home (until late yesterday afternoon they were saying it could be a week until we could return), though one of our neighbors was not so blessed – they lost their home, cars, barns, some pets.
It’s an odd feeling to be jarred out of bed in the quietest/darkest part of the night to find that it is very loud and very bright. When I looked out my window and saw a massive mushroom cloud of flame towering over my head in the direction of Shippingport, my first assumption was that the nuke plant had exploded and the world was over. Several of my neighbors said the same thing. My more pious neighbor said he thought that the Lord was returning. Either way, the world seemed to be ending.

Evacuating your house in about five minutes is a great reminder of the stuff that really matters in life, which isn’t stuff. All we really cared about was getting our family safely out of there. Mad props to our police who were on the scene quickly and evacuated everyone expeditiously as well. And also much appreciation to our neighbors who diligently cared for one another and worked the phones to make sure everyone was safe. And welcome to our newest neighbor. We’ll never forget the day Baby ______ was born!

No, you don’t see Jesus’ name in what Rich writes (other than inferred in the comment of his pious neighbor). But Christian faith is everywhere in what Rich wrote.  We are reminded that God loves human community – of course and especially, the community of the church, but also of good neighbors. Jesus said something about stuff not mattering much. Evacuating your house in about five minutes is a great reminder of the stuff that really matters in life, which isn’t stuff, Rich wrote.

Rich, I am so thankful that you and Amy and the kids are okay. And I am thankful for a friend who reminds us what it looks like when one has lived his life seeking first the Kingdom.

Becky and I will be in Michigan this weekend visiting our daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughters.