Jesus says, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." The Christian life is the way of the cross, the way of the cross of our Lord. He bids us to take up our crosses as he took up his; his life is the pattern for our lives. 

Just as Jesus had his own cross, the very physical cross of his sufferings and death on behalf of the world, so we each have our unique cross. Each cross comes carefully chosen by God to preserve us from losing our lives for the sake of this life. He gives us the cross so that we might cling to him and find true life. "Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." 

In this life, some suffer more than others. After this disastrous hurricane, some will walk away with minimal scarring, but others will have a deeper pain. We don't know why the difference, yet we know that every cross has first passed through the hand of our gracious God before it's given us. 

The same hand who sends the cross is the same hand pierced through with the nails of calvary for our salvation. Here is our great comfort in the midst of this tragedy. "The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD."