Two Gardens: trying to understand death and devastation

"My beloved has gone down to his garden, To the beds of balsam, To pasture his flock in the gardens And gather lilies."

Song of Solomon 6:2 

Last Sunday I came home and said to Yosef we need to be ready when the tornado sirens go off it will be soon. When you have lived in tornado alley most your life you just know when they're coming. The air gets warm, heavy and still and the sky grows dark and angry. Moments after I said this the siren wailed I took Abby to shelter with me in our tub and tried to distract her with a cartoon on the iPad. I prayed the prayer I have prayed since I was 9 every time the sirens blared please G-d not us, not anyone this time.  The sirens stopped in our area about 15 minutes later. We sat glued to the news hearing the first of the reports. This time it was bad, it was really bad.

This time it had hit hard in very populated areas. People had taken shelter but it didn't matter. Houses and whole neighborhoods were gone. Right after it happened it was still dark and we all hoped when the sun came up it would be a bit better. There would be damage we knew that but we prayed no lives were taken. But lives were lost, 15 in all taken by the storm.  Each name each face was heartbreaking but it was the 4 children that stuck with me the most and left be brokenhearted  Two girls and two boys both sets siblings. I got busy fast doing what little I could to try to help. Yosef and I gathered donations as much as we could as fast as we could. When I took the donations up to my sister for her to distribute I saw for myself the severe damage the tornado caused. The tornado's clear cut destructive path so apparent. The site shook me to my core. 

You see I believe in a powerful G-d a G-d that never loses or relinquishes control. A G-d with plans for each of the lives he creates. It infuriated me! How could G-d could let this happen? I was still so sad so angry especially over the children taken by the storm when I went to Shabbat services on Saturday. I waited for the Rabbi after services finished. I waited for the children to leave the room and asked the question I had pondered heartbroken all week. Why the children? 

The Rabbi's answer was in the form of a story. A story about two very different gardens and the gardener who cares lovingly for both . There are two gardens he explained our's here on earth and G-d's. Our garden which G-d created was once perfect like His but now has so many ugly things. Our garden has violence, sadness and death. All things that damage the gardener's beloved flowers in our garden. G-d's garden has none of these things. G-d's garden is perfect. It says in Song of Solomon that our Beloved comes to our garden and gathers His lilies. That he offered is what happened last Sunday our beloved, our G-d came in a storm to gather some of his most prized lilies. Some of the most perfect flowers in our garden. As heart wrenching and unbelievably sad it is for those left behind in our garden without those perfect lilies the lilies are fine. They are in G-d's garden.

My heart is still broken for the families and friends who lost loved ones and those who lost homes and businesses. I can not even begin to imagine how they are going on with their lives after such a  horrific loss. I am however no longer worried or angry for the children taken by the storm because I believe at this very moment they are enjoying G-d's perfect garden.