D.L.

Learn – Inspiration – Vision – Encounter

This weekend will be a week since the King and Queen of Spain visited the awful events in Valencia, Spain. Storm DANA has taken more than 200 lives, and there are still people unaccounted. Rain outpouring meant that entire communities were under water and mud. The powerful current meant that hundreds of cars and even homes were destroyed.
The pictures on our screens tell the story of one of southern Europe’s greatest unfortunate climate disasters.

I turned to Spanish media and watched and listened to people who had lost everything, some of them family members and friends. The power of nature was like a biblical event, a little less than Noah’s flood. I am not an analyst, but hearing people’s stories, there needed to be more warning and a slow reaction from the local and national governments to respond. Yet, I can understand if the normal channels of communication are disrupted. It reminded me of the last Chilean Earthquake and Tsunami, where people were not warned in time of the impending sea waves. Later, it became clear that both natural disasters disrupted communication. The only thing that worked was Morse Code! So much for the latest tech!

It was then on Sunday, and it was all over the news that government officials and the Spanish royalty visited Valencia, and they needed to be better received by the people and volunteers. They got so much verbal abuse, and people threw mud at them. The security team responsible for the safety of the King and Queen were overstretched, and it took a lot of work to contain the people. When the situation became dangerous, both leaders of the local government and the national government decided to leave. But not the King Felipe and Queen Leticia. They decided to stay, to take on the abuse, and they did not mind the mud, even if they were the target of mud-throwing. People were angry, and they knew they had an opportunity to be heard worldwide.

At one point, Queen Leticia cried with some women who told their stories, and the King embraced two young adults. Not only did they hear the complaints, but they embraced the very people they serve. I am not a royalist, but I greatly respect what they do. I was moved by not walking away and staying to listen and embrace.

It painted a picture and reminded me of King Jesus, who is always ready to listen and embrace us and will never leave or forsake us. A king who understands our pain and suffering and knows personally the meaning of losing everything, of becoming a servant to save us. It reminded me of the Suffering Servant and the words of Paul to the Philippians.

“Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited.
Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man,
he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death— even to death on a cross.
For this reason God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow— in heaven and on earth and under the earth—
and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
(Philippians 2,5-11 CSB17)

The King and Queen of Spain’s actions were not unnoticed. They became global news, and so was King Jesus’s action; it was not unnoticed; it is still news and relevant. He still cares, comforts, saves, and heals.