While traveling through tornado-devastated swaths of the Arkansas cities Clinton and Damascus this weekend, my family and I were mind-boggled to see the effects of cyclonic wind on land and property and people: a gargantuan steel construct – possibly a grain elevator – brought to its I-beam knees amidst a sea of rubble … a house which had once hosted a unique art gallery while shaded by great trees, sitting relatively undamaged on a bare knoll with only one denuded tree left standing beside it … and a sign, hand-painted on a plank and planted by Highway 65 in Damascus that simply said:

2 Corin. 4:7-11

Since my son was driving, I could pull out my PDA and key the scripture into its NIV Bible Reader and read:

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body.

Not long ago, Wade Hodges posted about good readings and right readings of scripture. The scripture that this sign cites is almost certainly taken out of context. It’s not the right reading.

But it is a good one.