Shelters When the Storm Comes

 “Our home is gone! 
    Washed down the river.”
    -- Displaced resident of NC 

 “Our home went up in smoke!
   Only the chimney is standing,”
   -- Displaced resident of
                  Pacific Palisades, CA  

During recent months, the hurricane disaster in Southeast US and the widespread fire damage in California have made headlines.  Thousands of residents were displaced and many became homeless.  Thankfully, such major disasters are so rare that we tend to take for granted the blessings of home, food, schools, churches, and community services. Many of us recognize that each of these blessings that support our social and physical well-being are from the good hand of our Creator God. 

Providential Shelters in Creation
Weather-related disasters remind us of how frail and dependent we are upon the normal function of the created order around us.  The created order consists of interwoven relationships among soil, water, air, and living organisms.  Together, these vital resources make up what scientists call ecosystems.  Ecosystems support human life and millions of other species of animals, plants, and microbes.   

Many scientists have tried to explain and even duplicate these ecosystems and the “ecosystem services” they provide.  From the giant mammals to the tiny microbes that reside in the mammalian gut, scientists are humbled by their limited success.  Many will acknowledge that only God or an unnamed “intelligent designer” could have created such complexity.   

We can marvel at how each of the millions of species can flourish, each in its own environment to which it has been adapted.  Without their amazing, life-sustaining adaptations in structure and function, each species would be as displaced and homeless as human disaster victims.  Let’s examine one particular example to illustrate our point.

Case Example:  Skunk Cabbage
Let’s consider one example in the plant kingdom, a plant whose unsavory leaves have earned it the name, Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus).  This fascinating plant is a member of the Arum Family along with Jack-in-the Pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum).  Skunk cabbage grows lushly in wet soils along streams where the water seeps from surrounding hillsides.  In North America, this plant species is considered a Spring wildflower although it blooms while the cold and snow of February still dominates its habitat. 

Recently, while hiking in Clear Creek Park here in Wooster, I was fortunate to spot the emerging flowering structures of Skunk Cabbage poking through the snow near the banks of Clear Creek. 

 You may ask how these plants could emerge after over a week of steady subfreezing temperatures.  The answer lies in Skunk Cabbage’s unusual ability to generate its own heat!  Heat is generated within the tissues of the fleshy, thumb-size flower stalk called the spadix.  The spadix is sheltered inside a fleshy hoodlike structure called a spathe.  Temperatures inside the spathe may reach 70 degrees Fahrenheit!  We might say, Skunk Cabbage creates its own “Spring weather” in middle of winter.  By storing up reserves of carbohydrates the year before and then “burning” them in February, the plant stokes its cellular furnaces which warm the plant and give it an early start in competition with later Spring-blooming species. 

 Amazingly, the Skunk Cabbage spathe often becomes warm enough to melt the snow around it.  The warmed tissues give off a distinct odor of rotting meat which attracts carrion-feeding flies and gnats to enter the warm shelter.  Once inside, the insects come into contact with pollen from the Skunk Cabbage flowers.  Then, when they leave the spathe and enter neighboring spathes, these insect visitors unknowingly transfer pollen from plant to plant allowing “cross-pollination.” 

Our Skunk Cabbage system not only favors its own survival and flourishing but also that of multiple insect species.  Later in the year, certain animal species such as bears may eat the leaves and seeds.   Skunk Cabbage is only one of many examples of the amazing provisions we believe God has designed for survival and flourishing of plants and animals.  Such relationships within God’s creation suggest that we live in a world that favors life and flourishing, not misery and death.   

Providential Care through Human Compassion
Most of us have been afforded the opportunity to live in the shelter and provision of a “home” where our needs are met.  Unlike the winter-flying insects that must find warmth and shelter inside a Skunk Cabbage spathe, our homes are places of reliable shelter from the snow and cold of winter, and the pounding rains and blistering sun of summer.  Home is also a place of safety from those who disregard the law.  Best of all, home affords a place in which family and friendships can grow, flourish, and make memories. 

Those who suddenly lose their homes and all of its provisions during natural disasters are at the mercy of God who providentially uses compassionate people who are willing to respond to desperate calls for help.  Temporary safe shelters, water, food, and medical services are essential to begin the restoration of order and the opportunity to rebuild homes and community. 

Many individuals and families face hard times when illness, unemployment, or another unexpected crisis occurs.  That is why it is comforting to find local helping hands and ministries such as People to People Ministries (PTPM) here in Wooster, Ohio to come alongside.  We are among those who thank the director, Joe Szeker, his dedicated staff, and many local residents who donate their time, food, clothing, and other resources in support of PTP’s mission “to provide an immediate, realistic, and compassionate response to people with these basic needs when these needs are not being met through any other programs.”  When we as God's image bearers demonstrate caring compassion in practical ways toward our neighbor in need, we are expressing the loving heart of God, evident in both human communities and in the providential life-supporting systems of His creation.

Further Reading: 

More on Skunk Cabbage:  Go HERE.
People to People Ministries:   Go HERE.
God’s Economy in Creation:  Go HERE.