Psalm 8:4 asks, "What is man that you are mindful of him?" At 2:07 Saturday morning we were awakened by an increasingly violent shaking of the bed. Immediately,as we heard the rumbling and felt the side-to-side movement, we recognized what was going on. As we heard articles crashing to the floor and shattering, we realized that it was more than a tremor. This was a fullfledged earthquake. Mitzi uttered calmly, "Lord, take care of us" and turned over. I said, "Wow!" and we layed in bed trying to go back to sleep. The quaking stopped, except for some aftershocks, and we were safe. We could hear some people talking outside after leaving their houses. After a half hour or so, failing to drift off, I got up and walked around the house to assess the damage. Thankfully, a few vases and figurines had fallen off shelves and broken, but otherwise, there was no damage.
6.2 was the rating of the earthquake...one of the strongest in quite a while in this country. It was the talk of the town and the news coverage was extensive. As far as I can learn, the internet accounts of "hundreds of homes were distroyed" were more than slight exagerations. We have only heard of a few homes being damaged, along with some road damage. Six people died as more or less indirect results of the quake...one on a motorcycle after running into a fallen power line pole and several from high blood pressure caused by fear.
Other than the sheer excitement of experiencing an earthquake, what I take from the event is to be reminded just how powerless we are in the face of natural disasters. Our house was shaking. Items were falling and breaking...and there was absolutely nothing we could do about it. Some things are just bigger than we are. Invincibility is not one of the attributes of humankind, no matter what we would like to believe.
The next day we were visiting with some friends and one suggested that maybe we all should take vulnerable breakables off of shelves each night. Mitzi replied, appropriately in my opinion, "I'm just not going to live that way. If they break, they break."
Living in fear certainly isn't a good way to live. I have often said that you shouldn't go through life afraid. But there are two extremes in how that philosophy may be adopted. One is to just "eat, drink, and be merry." That's the approach many take. They refuse to think about death...or what comes after...kind of an "if I ignore it, I won't have to deal with it" attitude. Problem with that approach is that it's avoiding the inevitable.
The Bible clearly states what all of us who have a little age on us knows. Life is brief. A better way to avoid living in fear of earthquakes is to have things in order. Sooner or later we are all going to have to stand before the judge. Why not do it sooner and take the grace, the pardon, and the forgiveness (and peace of mind, I might add)? The alternative is to wait...until it's too late...and be taken by surprise in an earthquake.
