earthquake & tsunami in Japan

On the afternoon of 11 March 2011, an earthquake with a scale of 9.0 magnitude shook the eastern coast of Oshika Peninsula, Japan. The earthquake a massive tsunami with waves as high as 20 feet and destroyed Sendai. Japan, highly noted for its disaster preparedness specifically on earthquakes, now suffers the lost of at least 4,000 individuals with an estimate of 7,000 still missing.

Asahi Shimbun/ Reuters as published in Time

I was at the office watching CNN when all these were being tackled in the news. The network has shown footage of waters coming over Sendai as it happens. It felt like watching an end-of-the-world film and it gives us goosebumps knowing that this is not some fiction depicted visually. Somebody is really drowning out there.

God does not put us in trials that we cannot overcome, was my initial thought for Japan. May be not so quickly, but surely the Japanese can get through this. Being in a country that experience earthquake almost everyday, harsh as it may seem, surely they were the most prepared for this. And they will be able to stand up again.

This morning, I was reading James 5 for my devotions and God spoke about Japan. He specifically whispered to me His thoughts on this country through James 5:1-8.

 ¹Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! ²Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. ³Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days. ⁴Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. ⁵You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. ⁶You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.

⁷Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. ⁸You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

Harsh as these verses may seem, God does not forget His people. He also shared His love to the Japanese by promising healing:

¹³Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. ¹⁴Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. ¹⁶Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

If there is one thing that I, a Filipino, a citizen of a third-world nation without a relative working in Japan, can do for a country that was never attached to me, can do is to see to it that they are being prayed for, that they are reminded to humble themselves before God, and that they be healed. I'm sure some of them have when we were the ones in distress.