A voice says "Cry!" What shall I cry?

I was challenged earlier to bring some comfort, and finally I tried; perhaps failed. Maybe this will make up for it, now.

Went to training in order to volunteer at the Astrodome. Turns out it was training to volunteer at the Convention center (in Houston!). This is, as we were constantly told, a "moving target," so change is the name of the game. Something like 8900 at the Center, we were told. "We" being a few thousand other people. Permit an explanation.

This training was under the auspices of the Baptists; yes, the Baptists. Held at the largest Baptist church in town (which is VERY big). We came across the freeway on a road that runs by the church campus (I've attended smaller colleges than this place). The traffic was backed up for a mile or so.

They estimated some 10,000 people had been there that day. They did everything they could to accomadate us, even running multiple sessions that day. No one was turned away, or told to come back another time. Our session was delayed by 30 minutes, just waiting for traffic to turn into parked cars, and for parked cars to empty out.

In three days, they guessed they had trained 30,000 people (obviously, this is not arduous training, and there were no exams!).

I took my undergraduate degree from a college of 10,000 students, in a town of 20,000. There were more volunteers than there are refugees in Houston. And there are several training sessions to go.

The crowd was incredibly patient, polite, and mixed. Nuns were there (in habits); Muslims (assuming from the dress of the women); Asian Indians; Christians; presumably non-Christians. This was an "inter-faith" effort; many houses of faith and worship had been notified and marshalled "armies."

It was, frankly, heartwarming. Amazing. To see so many people who cared enough about strangers to fight traffic and delays and spend their holiday getting trained for the privilege of volunteering for at least one 6 hour shift in downtown Houston (difficult to get to in the best of times).

Humanity is simply amazing. We are not Americans, now, or Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, believers or non-believers: we are brothers and sisters; at least for this moment.

It won't last long. Enjoy it while it's here. Don't ask why it happened; ask what you can do. God is with us; God is waiting for us. If we are wondering where God is, God is wondering where we are.

Today, I found out. It was wonderful.