Natural disasters such as the fires in Hawaii and the rains in California have disrupted normal life for so many. I tried to remember the places I knew that were on fire and decided to check the internet to be more accurate. (See the map above.) I discovered making a list was impossible. The whole world is on fire. And of course the most devastating is the loss of life which in Maui is currently at 114 known dead with 1,000 people missing. Truth is, the fire burned so hot that most of these people may never be found.
How do we handle these things? How do we make any sense of this? The ferocity and violence of these events is hard to reconcile with a loving God.
There are surely more, but at least three things I can think of that events such as these teach us:
1. How insignificant we are against natural disasters, and how much we must depend on the Lord. Storms have always been euphemisms for the power of God. That power benefits us, but can also harm us. Why He brings us harm is not always easy to grasp, but the end result is to get us to a place of submission to His perfect will, whatever that might be. It’s from the Book of Job in the Bible — the story of a man who lost everything — that we receive statements such as: “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” This is a statement not of resignation, but of spiritual maturity.
2. How much we need each other. Natural disasters always throw us together as human beings and shake us up to where we are forced to rely on friends and even strangers. Some meet neighbors for the first time. There will be many new friends created by long hours trapped in a shelter or the lobby of a hotel. Like Glen Sinatra, who in the lobby of the Hampton Inn in Estero, Florida, met, for the first time, the hospice nurse who had held his wife’s hand as she died.
3. And finally, we find out what’s really important, and what’s important are human life and relationships. Families who have lost everything in a fire cling to each other more in the realization that in spite of their loss, they are safe, and they still have each other, and as hard as it might be, they will start over. Material possessions can be replaced and will eventually all burn up anyway; relationships with God and each other are eternal
John Fischer The Catch 
So true about possessions and cannot say enough about turning to t he Lord thru his son Jesus because no matter what happens he is always the one we need most and folks that have gone thru so much while establishing relationships with others helping or are going thru the same thing can always stand close to God no matter what. I cannot imagine one day without our Lord thru the worst and best of times. Take care, God Bless, and reach out to others.
Amen Pastor John: ” Material possessions can be replaced and will eventually all burn up anyway; relationships with God and each other are eternal”
PS You quoted the Book of Job, which made me think of my life verse: Job 23:10 (a Mark’s paraphrase) but He knows the way I take & when He has tried me I shall come forth as Gold.