The Lighthouse That Never Lost Power

On September 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria slammed into Puerto Rico with 155-mile-per-hour winds. The entire island lost electricity. Hospitals went dark. Cell towers crumpled like paper. For months, 3.4 million people lived without power, and the landscape looked like a war zone — concrete walls sheared off buildings, mountains stripped bare of green.

But in the coastal town of Fajardo, something quiet and remarkable happened. A small church opened its doors before the winds had fully died. Members who had generators shared fuel. Nurses in the congregation set up a triage station in the fellowship hall. When the waters still roared and the mountains of debris seemed insurmountable, that little church became the stillness at the center of the storm.

They did not pretend the destruction was not real. They wept over it. But they also refused to let fear have the final word, because they knew the God who dwells among His people does not abandon them at daybreak — He shows up at daybreak.

This is the God of Psalm 46. The earth gives way, the waters rage, kingdoms totter and fall. And right there, in the middle of the wreckage, the Almighty speaks — and chaos itself melts. He breaks the bow. He shatters the spear. He makes wars cease. Not from a safe distance, but from within the city of His people, where He has chosen to dwell.