Sometimes the horror of history is so great that just one or two words bring a despairing silence. It may remind us of the evil in men’s hearts: 9-11, African genocide, Auschwitz, Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima. It may bring up images of incomprehensible natural disasters, including the more recent: Katrina, Indonesia, Haiti, Chile, Christchurch. And now, Japan.Japan’s March 11 earthquake and tsunami—violent, lethal, sudden—leave language impoverished. Our modern electronic age enabled unbelievable scenes to be beamed around the world. Who can forget the photos of the black, rampaging tidal wave, a monster from the depth of the sea? But what can we say? My first reaction was a prayer, “Lord, help these people.” At the same time, the magnitude of this reminded me of Jesus’ warning of great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in the last days (Luke 21:10).
But I was also reminded of something else—a solid truth established in song by a Pittsburg pastor’s wife during the darkest times of World War 2. One day in 1943, while doing her homework, she was thinking of 2 Timothy 3:1: “There will be terrible times in the last days.” Then she recalled Hebrews 6:19: “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.” Taking a pad of paper from her apron pocket, Ruth Caye Jones wrote the words and melody for a hymn that begins, “In times like these you need a Savior.” The refrain affirms: our anchor holds on the Solid Rock, Jesus Christ.
When disasters such as the recent one in Japan leave me at a loss for words, I have to turn to God’s Word. Psalm 46 speaks of the earth giving way, mountains falling into the heart of the sea, and its waters roaring and foaming as the mountains quake with their surging. It’s happened before. It will probably happen again. But this will never change: “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1-2).
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