In 1794, the Romantic poet William Blake wrote a poem called "The Tyger" in which he lists the awesomely terrifying qualities of the tiger and wonders about the fearsome beast’s Creator: "Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the Lamb make thee?" After four hurricanes in six weeks, Floridians may well be asking a variation on that same question. Did he who made Brother Wind also make the powerful gusts that flatten mobile homes? Did he who made Sister Water also make the storm surges that have destroyed our beaches and caused homes along New Smyrna Beach to be condemned? Because we tend to interpret the world around us in terms of "labels" (e.g. "good" and "bad") we have difficulty thinking of hurricanes and tigers as something that was created by God as lovingly as when he created the zebra and the summer mist.
Once Hurricane Frances hit us, and we realized that Ivan was already looming toward us, I heard people say that God must be angry with us and is punishing us. Pat Robertson’s dire warning back in 1998 that God would send hurricanes because the city of Orlando hangs rainbow flags during Gay Pride week has resurfaced and is used by the modern-day flagellants as proof that God is angry. For the sake of argument, let us declare that sentiment to be a fact – God is angry with Orlando. Would God punish Haiti for the sins of Orlando? Would he really drown 2000 of the poorest people in the northern hemisphere for something that they hadn’t done? Has Haiti become Orlando’s whipping boy? Did they just in the way by mistake? Can you picture God up there in heaven saying "Oops, sorry guys. Didn’t mean to do that. I was aiming for Florida."
No. Hurricanes, like tigers, are a necessary link in nature’s checks and balances. If you wipe predators out, the prey animals become too numerous for the earth to support. Nature depends on predators to weed out the herds. Of course we don’t like to think about the zebra being killed and eaten by a tiger. Zebras are pretty and they are vegetarians and they’re "good." But God created tigers that hunt and he created zebras that are hunted and he loves both of them.
Hurricanes have a purpose, too. They clean the air and the water. They transfer heat from the lower hemisphere to the upper hemisphere. It is a natural, needed process. Some years there are naturally more hurricanes; some years less. Nature is cyclical. Praising God for Brother Wind when you’ve lost a fence, a carport, a shed, a roof, or a house is difficult. Even accepting it as a natural occurrence is sometimes beyond our capabilities. We think, like Job’s friends, that someone must have done something bad and we start pointing the fingers. Weather isn’t a punishment. Weather just is. God is not punishing us with hurricanes anymore than he is punishing the zebra that becomes the tiger’s dinner.
Now, certainly, I will not be praying that God send us the same kind of cleansing next year and I will be praying for protection from the force of nature should next year’s season (or the rest of this year’s season, for that matter) prove as active as the "four hurricanes in six weeks" body and mind numbing onslaught we just survived. However, should the doomsday weather forecasters be right and this year foretell a cycle of more active hurricane seasons, it would be wise to remember that God speaks to more people than Pat Robertson and God’s message is one of love, not retribution.
