Of prayer and tornadoes

Whether you live around my area or not, I'm sure by now most of you have seen the video of a woman on her front porch, facing down a full-blown tornado heading straight for her, while she prays for it to go away.
It first debuted earlier this month on a local television news broadcast, but I understand it's been making the rounds elsewhere, in some cases as a testament to the power of prayer.
It is a powerful image. An elderly woman, who should have been in her basement or bathtub, standing on her front porch and seemingly willing away a tornado that's about 50 yards from taking her to OZ bearing down on her house.
All of a sudden, the tornado changed course. She and her home were spared.
She talked to the television reporter about how she had faith and how God channeled her to pray the tornado away.
Unfortunately, there is a postscript. An epilogue.
After the tornado took a hard turn from this woman's house, it descended upon the town of West Liberty, Ky., a small community of about 3,200, and blew it off the map, killing six in the process (see photo at the end of this column).
On the original newscast, the anchor included this information and said the woman who was saved was praying for the family of the six victims.
Gee, thanks.
All right, so it's not this woman's fault. She did what she believed was the correct thing to do.
But did God really say "OK, you've reached me. Let's turn this thing loose on West Liberty and see if they can do the same."
Look, I'm the last person to claim to understand God. In fact, as a human (some have called me worse), I don't think I'm meant to.
But I don't think God sends tornadoes, or house fires or (are you listening, Pat Robertson?) planes flying into buildings as punishment, or a way to test faith. Floods? Well, that's a different topic depending on what you believe.
I don't think spiritual prayer, of any faith, is meant as a means of sending a tornado away, gaining wealth, harming someone else, or having your kicker make a last-minute field goal.
Now, the hundreds of thousands of dollars that have poured in from individuals, organizations and what have you for food, clothing, materials and funding to put people on the ground who can help; the thousands of volunteers who have shown up to do whatever they can, the residents saying "We can rebuild," that's where I see God at work.
This whole thing is a philosophical can of worms, so I apologize for opening it. It's not easily summarized in a few words.
Other than that, I hope that the people all over our region who have been affected by this can recover. In fact, I'm praying for it.