24th September, 2010

TRACEY PARR

What do you learn about God when you’re the unwilling participant in an earthquake? Being woken at 4.30am to the sound and sensation of your bed banging against the wall behind your head, the unexpected sound of being inside the engine of a runaway steam train, the crashing of glass and crockery along with the moaning of a house being twisted by huge forces is something you cannot prepare for! Even through the sleep daze, you find yourself moving to a safer place and bracing yourself for however long that it takes for the ground to stop contorting underneath you and twisting the building around you - self-preservation instincts kick in before you’re even awake.

In the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquakes (and yes, more than 20 days later, they are still going), I have had time to ponder where God was in the middle of amazing and potentially soul-destroying devastation throughout the Canterbury region. It’s a part of the world that talks of earthquakes, realises the reality of them but ultimately couldn’t prepare for the physical and emotional onslaught that comes with a 7.1 magnitude quake and the huge number of significant aftershocks (more than 800 and still counting), on a fault line that was unknown of until 4th September.  

Heartfelt loss united all affected by the earthquake in the days following the initial “Big Shake”, a communal experience and fear that overcame the usual social differences. Media reported on the disappointment for workers when a careful effort to remove the cross from the destroyed Knox Church in Christchurch resulted in a breaking crack just as it came to rest on the ground – the watching crowd cried out in disappointment. The miracle that no one was killed in the initial earthquake has brought up the thought of a protective Father for many. It seems that regardless of where people are spiritually, this is a time to reflect.

To see and feel the ground move in such a way compels you to consider our powerful creator God -seeing slabs of concrete thrown helter skelter and chaos created in what you know was ordered. Feeling a solid cement slab grating tortured below your bare feet in the dark hours of the morning reminds you of the strength in the earth, set in motion by an amazing creator God of whom I have such a naïve understanding. Being a Christian who has always being smitten with the redeeming love of a Father God, it’s enlightening to experience this power that was unleashed, so suddenly and without warning.

The people around the Christchurch area need our prayers. Aftershocks are nasty, they are unpredictable and you can’t move to another area to avoid them – they create further damage to weakened structures and feed more fear into the initial terror of the large quake. Uncertainty has become the norm, with buildings that were apparently left undamaged by the first earthquake, suffering damage in the aftershocks. Children are not sleeping at night, elderly people are feeling vulnerable, and relationships are suffering as the reality of unemployment, the loss of housing and the ongoing change to living continues – many homes are still boiling water and using the port-a-loo on the front lawn.

As I reflect on my personal experience, the strength of these quakes still blows my mind and shakes my body. In Matthew 27, the centurion and soldiers keeping watch over Jesus are described as being terribly frightened and filled with awe when they observed the earthquake in the Holy City. I’m with them and better understand how God made His power very physically known to the population of Jerusalem after the death of Jesus.

So, what do you learn about God when you’re the unwilling participant in an earthquake? (My husband would joke that you realise that you may be meeting Him soon!) I learnt that I am the loved child of an awesome God who for all His power cares for something as vulnerable and fragile as me. Being in the Christchurch earthquake was not a choice I would make, but God has used it to reveal something more of His nature to me in a way that I could never have grasped though a book or someone else’s experience. God does some extreme things to get peoples attention, including mine.

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