Tsunami, You Say?

Isn't that a cool sounding word? It just kind of rolls off the tongue: (t)sooname. Everyone (I'm pretty sure) knows we have the Japanese to thank for the word (tsu meaning harbor and nami wave in their language), But as interesting as its etymology is, as euphonious as its syllables are, I never, ever, EVER want to see one. Not even be near one, thank you very much. I have had enough earthquakes in my life to satisfy any crazy quirk I might harbor of wanting to experience a cataclysmic event.

I still remember the first time I was in Auntie's bedroom/office in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico, and my legs got a funny feeling. Auntie saw the frown on my face as I tried to figure out what was going on and she pointed to her light fixture. It was gently swaying back and forth. "It's an earthquake," she explained. "We get lots of them here. You'll get used to them, They're usually light like this one."

Easy for her to say, I thought. Somehow I couldn't wrap my head around "getting used" to earthquakes. But, guess what! She was right. Eventually I really did get used to the silly things! Although scientists claim they happen every day in that area, most are so "light" that you're not aware of them. Sometimes only moving fixtures are the only telltale signs. But other times . . .

I became a wee bit concerned once when we spent the night with visiting missionaries in Mexico City at the Wycliff facility there. As low man on the totem pole, I was assigned top bunk in a room I shared with a missionary I didn't know. In the middle of the night the bed got to rocking. A lot. So much so that it woke me up, although I am an exceptionally sound sleeper. My goodness, I thought (with a tinge of aggravation at the person I assumed had woken me up), that girl sure does wiggle in her sleep! The rocking got worse, though, and when I heard the girl get up I followed suit. But the bed still rocked. It wasn't the girl causing the movement! It was an earthquake!

As if by common consent, everyone at the center left their respective sleeping quarters to congregate in the middle of the courtyard. I prayed silently, not scared exactly, but wondering if this would be the end of my existence. But after a few more earth-shaking minutes, the ground beneath stilled. After a sigh of relief and a few mumbled asides, we were only too glad to return to our sleeping quarters, to beds that, thankfully, did not move!

I was still in Cuernavaca when a 7.5 quake hit Guatemala in1976 . Although Auntie and I were not there, through the magazine we worked with, Voz en el desierto, we were in contact with literally thousands of Christians in that country. Despite the 76,000 injured and 23,000 fatalities, we learned of only one death throughout the Christian communities within our network. The 11 year old girl of a Christian couple was crushed to death by a falling wall in the courtyard of her home.

Not long after this tragedy, a group of Guatemalan ministers came through Cuernavaca. I took the opportunity to ask them if they had seen a difference between the devastation experienced by the Christian community and that of the unbelievers. The lack of deaths among the people we heard from had me wondering. Sure enough, one of the native pastors confirmed what I had suspected. In fact, he shared a rather stunning story.

There had been a village to which he and other brethren had gone to minister. That village wanted nothing to do with them. They did NOT want to hear the gospel. So the minister and his company moseyed on to the next village 8 kilometers away. The reception they got there was 180 degrees different from that of the first village. Those in the second village wanted to hear the gospel. Many, if not all, of the inhabitants of that village gave their lives to the Lord. When the devastating earthquake hit, the village that had rejected Jesus was totally demolished with great loss of life. The village that had received the gospel, a mere 8 kilometers away (that would be 4.971 miles), suffered no loss of life. Although they did experience some loss of property, their lives were preserved. Coincidence? I think not. Look at what happened in Mexico City a mere nine years later.

By that time I was married and living in Cd. Victoria with my missionary husband, Steve Muse, far far away from the moving tectonic plates that play havoc with Mexico City and its environs, My heart caught in my throat when I heard of the 8.1 magnitude quake that left 10,000 dead and 30,000 injured. My best friend lived in Mexico City! Back then, calling long distance in that country was not as easy as it is today, but God was merciful, and before that horrible night was out I was able to make contact with my friend. She was fine as were all my other church friends in Mexico City.

Later I heard hair-raising stories from other friends, stories of miraculous deliverance. One friend's cousin, a Christian, was a doctor in a ladies' hospital that was hit hard. He had been in the process of taking x-rays to another facility at the time the quake hit. The area where he would normally have been was demolished. If he had not gone on that errand . . . Another Christian family had a son in the military. While normally he would have been in the vicinity of a hard-hit area, an errand had taken him across the city to deliver papers where by God's grace he escaped unscathed.

I think that deductive reasoning would point to the fact that there seems to be a very real protection over those who are called by the name of Christ. It's a comforting truth in times when the insanity and chaos around us point to the fulfillment of endtime prophesy. But I would make it clear to you that we are NOT promised deliverance from every storm.

I hate to admit it, but my expectations about tribulation got a little warped through God's miraculous intervention in those earthquakes. Somehow I allowed the nothing-less-than-divine protection I had seen make me conveniently forget Jesus's words recorded in John 6:33, a promise we don't like to think of: "In the world ye shall have tribulation:" My attitude ran along the lines of, "Plagues? No problema! I am covered by the blood of Jesus! I am part of the real untouchables (that is, untouchable by Satan)."

While this is definitely a God-truth, if not merged with all God's truth, it can get a little skewed . . . as I was painfully made aware of by the death of my first husband. My Satan-can't-touch-me bubble got popped in devastating fashion. To say I was confused is putting it mildly. God had to scrape me off the floor with a spatula and patiently put me back together with a balanced look at His Word.

Remember the 11 year old girl who died in Guatemala? Although there is great comfort and protection to those who know the Lord, we are not guaranteed 100% deliverance 100% of the time. There are those of us who will be called to continue the Hall of Fame list mentioned at the end of Hebrews 11--we will pray and, though our faith in God be unshakeable, die without seeing the deliverance we prayed for in this life.

Don't ask me why, I am not God. The missionary husband mentioned above? I had seen him supernaturally healed twice. Yet in his third illness, he was healed on the other side of Heaven. Why? I simply don't know.

What I do know is that God's ways are perfect (Psalm 18:30). I am grateful to the nth degree that there is safety in Him, but I need to remember that sometimes, in His great wisdom, instead of delivering us from a valley of pain, He will walk with us through it. The Hebrew boys in the book of Daniel who escaped unscathed from the fire, delivered from even the smell of smoke? They told the old king that their God could deliver them, but even if in His divine wisdom He chose not to, their faith would not waver, they would still believe in Him. The remainder of the verse where Jesus promises us tribulation in this world? It ends with another promise. Thankfully, this one is definitely on the upbeat side! He tells us, "Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." Like the Hebrew boys in Daniel, we might go through the fire, but our God will walk with us!

I might not know the why some prayers are not answered as we would wish on this side of Heaven, but because I know my Savior, I can trust that He will do that which is best for me and mine. Like the Hebrew boys of old, I choose, no matter what, to trust my Lord. In every case, be it tsunami, earthquake, or whatever, we can rest assured that our Heavenly Father does indeed know best!

"He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. . . Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day

. . ." Psalm 91:1, 5

"Although the fig tree shall not blossom . . . Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation." (Habakkuk 3:17-18)