The Hand of God?

Terry gave me this poem, written by a good friend of his, who has since died.  He said she would have liked it to be read and published.  And this is the best I can do.

I would love to have been able to talk to her about the last line, and assure her that this was not "the hand of God", or "an act of God" as some people might define it.   It was in fact the very opposite.  What she describes so vividly in her poem happens because we are cut off from our Creator.

Anyway, here it is:

Tsunami
by Maureen Williams, written 2010

The wave emerging from the deep
Was soon to the make the whole world weep.
Out of the ocean like a ghost
Before progressing to the coast.

This line of surf moves on with speed
A silent threat to do its deed.
The people on the distant shore
Beheld this sight with puzzled awe.

The crest arrived, nowhere to run.
The place where all had had their fun,
The young, the old, they met their fate,
They watched too long, it was too late.

The sandy beach that is no more,
There's only death upon the shore.
Huge boulders thrown up by the sea
Destroyed the jetty, boats and quay.

After the tumult there is no sound.
Devastation is all around.
The cries for help, the screams of fear,
The call of birds all disappear.

Water and bodies everywhere,
Those who are left can only stare.
To comprehend is always hard
That this could be the Hand of God.

A vivid description - especially of the sudden silence in the tsunami's wake.  But I would have loved to talk to Maureen and show her what Genesis so clearly and simply tells us.  Because when our first parents made that fatal decision to cut themselves - and us, their unborn children - off from their Creator, their Source of life, they found that they could not even keep themselves alive, let alone run this beautiful and complex planet.

We, their damaged children, cannot keep ourselves alive either.  Nor can we manage the planet with its immense forces and its complex patterns.  So we have these "natural" disasters - like tsunamis... But are they natural?   Had our first parents obeyed their Creator, things would have been so different.   All the natural forces would have been under perfect control.  We would find them splendid and awe-inspiring, but we would have nothing to fear from them.

And I would have wanted to remind Maureen of what Jesus did when he was on the earth.  How he calmed the storm on the Sea of Galilee.

Matthew 8:23-27 tells us:  "And when he went aboard a boat, his disciples followed him. Now look! a great storm arose on the sea, so that the boat was being covered by the waves; but he was sleeping. And they came and woke him up, saying: “Lord, save us, we are about to perish!”  But he said to them: “Why are you so afraid, you with little faith?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and a great calm set in. So the men were amazed and said: “What sort of person is this? Even the winds and the sea obey him.”"

The winds and the sea obeyed Jesus.   So when he is ruling over us as the King of Jehovah's Kingdom, he will bring the earth back into the peace and the harmony there was in the beginning.

And, wonderfully he has also been given the authority to wake the dead from their dreamless sleep.   Once again, he demonstrated that while he was on the earth. We all know about Lazarus to this day!

Jehovah's spirit can and will empower him to restore the earth to the Paradise it was always meant to be, and to awaken "many of those asleep in the dust of earth".

So when Maureen the Poet next opens her eyes, it will be in an earth ruled by the law of loving-kindness, and an earth in perfect balance. No more "natural" disaster to fear.


Captain Butterfly went up to London today to see the Natural History Photography Exhibition.  We would usually go together. Will I be able to get there next year?

I am now a bit scared of "that London" - though we lived there for many years, and had some lovely day trips in the early years of our retirement.  Jackie and I were talking about them this morning.  But she, like me, is now anxious about the idea of a London trip. And she is a London girl.

I devoted my day to shopping, making a roast chicken dinner for the weary traveller to come home to, finishing my study for tonight and practising my part in the Ministry School with my pretty young householder.