“In times of trouble, God remains our mighty fortress. Let the earth tremble - we won't be afraid!” -
- Psalm 46: 1-2
He'd lived in Japan all his
life. Takumi was no stranger to earthquakes;
he knew well the unimaginable forces the earth could unleash. But this one terrified him. Life as he knew it was about to change
dramatically.
The entire office caved in; ceiling tiles encased him. The once quiet morning had erupted into a
deep bass roar, the sound of breaking glass, and the shrieks of rending
wood. After what seemed like forever,
the earth stopped moving.
Momentarily stunned, Takumi pushed through a mound of debris
and groped his way toward the doorway. He
must escape before the entire building collapsed.
The scene outside sickened him! Building chunks clogged the street. Gas hissed from broken pipes. The highway split neatly along the center
line as if it were perforated paper. An
eerie creaking sound emerged from buildings struggling to remain upright. Everybody crowded into the street now, their
shocked faces white with fear. Cries of
agony and the unnerving sounds of slow, painful death erupted from all
sides.
Takumi ran for home and didn’t dare look too long at
anything. It was like a nightmare, only
he couldn’t wake up. This was for real. His feet burned as he ran. His throat seared; his head throbbed, but he
had to get home. He kept waiting for the
moment when his over-worked lungs would finally clog from the filthy air he was
greedily inhaling.
It didn’t come; he wouldn’t let it! Hope was motivating him; but also terror of
what he may find, or may never find, if he didn’t keep running.
He rounded the corner toward his once tidy house – and
gasped. The structure was severely
damaged. The roof had collapsed -
everything that could have fallen – did.
He rushed inside.
Then he saw her – through the fallen timbers,
motionless. Her pose was strange: she
knelt as if in prayer - her body leaning forward, two hands supporting an unknown
object. Her back and head were
crushed. She was gone.
Takumi knelt down through the narrow cracks to search the
little space under her lifeless body.
“Oh my Lord!” he screamed.
Neighbors heard his cry and carefully helped remove piles of
rubbish. There, wrapped in a flowery
blanket under his dead wife’s body lay Aito, his 3 month old son. She had used her body to shield her baby boy from the fate that ended her
life.
When Takumi hugged his little boy, he felt something rigid beneath
the blanket. He quickly uncovered the
boy and discovered a cell phone inside.
The screen’s text message read: ”Dear Aito, if you live, never forget
how much I love you.”
“Thank you Lord, for a Mother’s love. Bless her with Your grace today. Help her to feel precious in your eyes and to know
that I love her. Give her strength and
courage, compassion and peace. Amen
