“Earthquakes & Disaster”

As Janie and I continue to appreciate the beauty of the national parks we visited last week, we are reminded that we live in a “fallen world” that will be renewed by God in the near future.  Recent news reports that at least 1,400 people were killed and over 3,000 injured after a 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan last Sunday night.

The quake’s epicenter was about 17 miles from Jalalabad, near the Afghanistan/Pakistan border, and just 5 miles below the surface, reducing vulnerable mud-brick and wooden homes to rubble. (Shallow quakes lead to more intense shaking on the surface.) Aftershocks followed, including a 5.2 magnitude on Monday and a 5.5 magnitude yesterday.

Meanwhile, Sudan is also asking for help. A landslide in its war-ravaged Darfur region leveled an entire village on Sunday, killing an estimated 1,000 people and leaving just one survivor in a “nightmare” scenario.

Natural disasters remind us that all of the world has been broken by sin. But Christians can look forward to an eternity where there’s redemption not just for people, but for creation itself. Let’s pray for comfort, rescue, and ultimately, hope only found through Christ, for the Afghan and Sudanese people.

“For the creation was subjected to futility — not willingly, but because of him who subjected it — in the hope that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage to decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children.”  Romans 8:20-21

Thanking God for the promise of a glorious future with Christ, Pastor Larry