Earthquake reflections.

New Fauche Church

Yesterday's weather fit my mood just as if I could of picked it. Not bright sunshine, not thundering torrential downpour of rain that represents power but a grey, slow drizzle that makes one think that the whole world of nature had joined the sadness of the day.

Yesterday Haiti remembered and thought again of that fateful day, 3 years ago when lives ended or changed permanently following a few seconds of a powerful 7.0 earthquake.

Life changed but continued for the survivors. Questions and hurts remain but we go on putting one foot in front of the other. Some remain stuck in the hurts and pain while others strive to heal, learning how to live and thrive despite the scars and pain that remain.

Slowly lives rebuild like buildings. People make new connections, new relationships not to replace those we lost but to fill some of the gaps left by those special friends taken so fast and without warning.

Relationships and time now feel more fleeting and fragile. Never to be taken for granted but to be cherished and enjoyed as the gifts from God that they are.

With the passing of time I also find myself continuing to look for the positives that came out of the earthquakes perhaps to try to ease the pain of the unanswerable question of why?

Campus / Community Bookstore

 I think of the baby born under primitive conditions of a field hospital with a life threading birth defect who in hours found the medical treatment and surgeons needed to save his life. Had this child been born just a few weeks earlier it is doubtful that the needed care would of been available to this family.

I think of being reduced to my basic core personality, habits and attitudes unable to hid behind a comfort zone or mask. This forced me to face some of the problem areas of my life and decide if I wanted to continue to live as before or make the needed changes to improve.

  Cory, Eli and Anna gave me a necklace the first summer following the quake that I rarely take off. It reads "Jeremiah 31:3 I have loved thee with everlasting love." Everlasting. Unchanging despite changing life circumstances.

 The verse is a mobius band design, I like the symbolism. Mobius by definition is a surface with only one side and only one boundary component, the mathematical property of being non-orientable.

So as it hangs on the necklace it always changes and not predictable like life, but His Love, His being, His Plan remains totally reliable and trustworthy. Lord, may I have enough faith to always believe.

 I'm thankful I did not remain the person who I was three years ago and that with the grace of God I will continue to change.