I don't know how it feels to leave home to escape a storm, thinking you'll return in a day or so (like you have done many times before), only to watch helplessly from a distance as the storm destroys your home and almost every other structure in it's path.

I don't know how it feels to wait for the opportunity to return to your home to see if there is anything left. I don't know how it feels, but He does.

I don't know how it feels to face the reality that every material possession you own is gone. Whether by wind, water, or looters, it is all gone. I don't know how it feels, but He does.

I don't know how it feels to kiss your wife goodbye as she goes off to work and learn a short time later that the building she worked in is engulfed in flames and crumbling to the ground. I don't know how it feels, but He does.

I don't know how it feels for your wife to say, "I don't love you anymore."

I don't know how it feels to have your Dad say, "Your mother and I just don't get along and we have grown apart. Anyway, I've found someone else who can make me happier, so I'm moving out."

I don't know how it feels to have a doctor tell you "Your wife has cancer and it is in such an advanced stage that there is nothing that we can do."

I don't know how it feels to go home at the end of the day to a house emptied by the death of your spouse knowing that all you have to look forward to is another long sleepless night ... alone.

I don't know the feeling of not knowing where your son or daughter is for an extended period of time. Days. Weeks. Months. Years.

But He does!
I don't know the feeling of returning to the site of what was once an assembly hall for you and other believers to listen to sermons, hear confessions, witness baptisms, share victories and defeats, and to celebrate joyous weddings. Now, there is a pile of rubble.

I don't know how it feels, but He does.

We can take comfort in these words of Scripture.

"And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever." (1 Chronicles 28:9 NIV)GOD makes everything come out right; he puts victims back on their feet. He showed Moses how he went about his work, opened up his plans to all Israel. GOD is sheer mercy and grace; not easily angered, he's rich in love. He doesn't endlessly nag and scold, nor hold grudges forever. He doesn't treat us as our sins deserve, nor pay us back in full for our wrongs. As high as heaven is over the earth, so strong is his love to those who fear him. And as far as sunrise is from sunset, he has separated us from our sins. As parents feel for their children, GOD feels for those who fear him. He knows us inside and out, keeps in mind that we're made of mud. Men and women don't live very long; like wildflowers they spring up and blossom, but a storm snuffs them out just as quickly, leaving nothing to show they were here. God's love, though, is ever and always, eternally present to all who fear him, making everything right for them and their children as they follow his Covenant ways and remember to do whatever he said. (Psalm 103:6-18 The Message)I don't know how it feels, but He does.