Last week my hometown found itself in Hurricane Matthew's path of destruction. The destruction left my little town in terrible shape. Matthew brought down limbs and tore roads apart. It took lives, took homes, and left its mark in every corner of the county. Matthew came and it fought.

When disaster strikes, you learn a lot about people. You realize that at the end of the day, we are all living for the same things, but that we all live in ways that are not the same at all. We all want to be loved, to know happiness, and to do well in life. When disaster strikes, these things become more obvious to us. Over time, we begin to lose sight of all of the things that truly make us all the same, but when we are stripped of the things that can keep us from loving one another, we find that we are all the same on the inside. I wish that it didn't take a disaster for us to reach across party lines, leave the comfort that we know, and join forces with our fellow man, but it's refreshing to see that when we finally peel back all of the layers, there is only one thing that binds us all together: We were made to love one another.

In the midst of devastating times, we must hold onto the thing that binds us all and when better times are among us, we must not forget that underneath our layers, we are all the same. When disaster strikes, it's hard to see a community reap the effects of a natural monster; however, it's special to see people coming together to get through the devastation together.

Matthew showed up at my door last weekend. It beat up on my community and took more than a dozen lives in North Carolina alone, but one thing Matthew didn't do was take the heart of the Carolina people. Despite the negative effects of the storm, Matthew reminded me, and many others, that a few things will always remain no matter. One of these things is love.