It's an Uncertain World

As I write this, it has been less than 12 hours since the devastating historic earthquake and tsunami have hit Japan.  Seeing the extreme devastation and knowing that people had no way of escaping the crushing tidal wave causes me to pause.  Life is short.  Life is precious.  Life is unpredictable.  The world is an uncertain place.  Everything can change in a blink of an eye, in a split second.  As the hours pass, word will continue to trickle out of Japan as to the number of lives lost, but they are more than numbers -- they are people who lived, laughed, loved, and impacted the lives of others on a daily basis. 

To have survived the earthquake and the ensuing catastrophic tsunami is one thing, but to now deal with the aftermath is quite another.  Broken buildings, crushed homes, upheaved streets and roads, boats and debris piled high, bodies buried in the debris -- coping with this is another thing entirely.  People have nowhere to go to escape the devastation, no place to rest, eat, bathe, or simply sit down and feel safe as aftershocks are a constant reminder that the earth moves and there is nothing you can do about it.

I have readers in Japan, and I hope and earnestly pray that all is well with them and their loved ones.  As in many instances in life, survival depends on where you are when an event such as this occurs.  Every part of our world deals with some sort of threat of a natural disaster, some places moreso than others, and living in North Carolina gives us a sense of security in that we don't experience catastrophic events (at least, we haven't), but we have to deal with tornadoes, which come quickly, and hurricanes, but we can get out of the way of those.  I work in a 5-story building and have wondered what it would be like to have it shake violently, and I've decided that I don't want to know.  The videos I've seen from Japan are enough to quell my curiosity.  There are some things in life that I don't want to experience!

In our uncertain world, there is one thing that is certain -- God is still in control.  We are not guaranteed safety and shelter from the storms of life, but God is still in control.  We will all ultimately leave this world behind, and to know that God has prepared a place for those who are His gives us peace in times such as these.