  Today, I woke to news photos and videos of Friday’s tsunami that followed the earthquake in Japan. These pictures of utter devastation and loss are too much to get one’s head around. Here in Oklahoma, we see similar pictures that can be a mile wide from tornado damage. But to comprehend that kind of thing for a whole country is just mind boggling. Photos of empty store shelves, long lines of people patiently waiting for rationed food or water and numbed and dazed individuals struggling to crawl through rubble made my heart ache. But it was the news of the staggering flow of bodies floating along the coast to the horror of onlookers that gripped my gut. I have come to a conscious acknowlegment that prepare as one might, one is never physically prepared. I teach classes on canning, dehydrating and cooking, grain storage and grinding or flaking grains, as well as bread making and I encourage the art of buying on sale, in quantity, to process in order to have a well-stocked pantry. I coupon with the best of them and gleefully (I try not to be too smug) cart off my 50 tubes of toothpaste for free. The Girl Scout in me whispers, “Be Prepared” for anything and lately that preparedness has been regarding rising food prices. There is nothing more gratifying than knowing that one does not have to run to the grocery store and can even survive without a grocery store for a very long time. Food storage is like having a savings account. And then I look at the pictures of Japan. Have you seen the one of the man who was rescued 9 miles out to sea, floating on what was left of his roof? His house is gone, as well as his wife – and everything in that house is gone as well. All of the planning he might have done, all of the specials he might have purchased, all of the grains he might have stored would be gone as well. All he has is the clothes on his back just like hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of other Japanese. So where does that leave the idea of preparation? Does it mean just “eat, drink and be merry because tomorrow may never come”? The answer to that question can be found in Mathew 6: “Do not focus on storing up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But focus on storing up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” While there are quite a number of passages in scripture that encourage people to be diligent in putting up a store of food, etc, the deeper truth is that all of the storing in the world isn’t our safety. A trust in God is the only sure thing. I see the numbers of deaths in Japan and it’s just an obvious truth that these people’s provisions helped them not one whit. And as they stand before God today, had they stored up for this day by accepting who He is rather than counting how many pounds of rice they had on hand? My prayer is that they did. But for those of us left staring at the reality that is here on earth, we have this moment to make that very preparation. God is the creater of this earth and all of the power that is in it. We see His power mimicked in the force of the earthquakes and tsunamis of our time. These powerful occurrences only prove to man just how powerless man really is, in spite of all his planning and storing and intellectual mumbo jumbo. It proves how much man needs God. My father used to tell me that when I think I am in control, to just pick up a boulder, hold it over my foot and drop it and then will it to stop dropping. Right. Man can be awfully arrogant in his assumption of his own power. On Friday, we found out that we don’t even have the power to control our own inventions like nuclear plants. The fact is, there is absolutely nothing wrong with storing up in times of plenty to prepare for times of want. Joseph did that very well. But the question one must ask one’s self is, “Is my dependence on my stuff and my plans or is it on God?” If the answer is, “In my stuff and my plans” then one will find that one is not prepared at all. In the words of Robert Burns in To A Mouse, “The best laid plans of mice and men go oft awry.” |
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