Are you just like me, glued to CNN and BBC for news on the earthquake in Japan and the possible nuclear meltdown?

I had just finished teaching the seminar on spiritual warfare on Friday when my husband called me on my cellphone to tell me about the earthquake.  My mind was trying to grasp the reality of what an earthquake of 8.9 magnitude would look like since my mind was still full of the images of Christchurch, New Zealand and the earthquake there.

As soon as I got home, the images on TV assaulted me.  Scenes of devastation were overwhelming, there are truly no appropriate words to say.  On TV, an American living in Japan for 9 years was interviewed via Skype and he said that earthquakes were commonplace in Japan.  He himself recalls experiencing at least 3 every month so that when he felt the earthquake, he wasn’t alarmed.  He was atop a high rise and he stayed there, calmly trusting the design of the modern building he was in, that it could withstand the earthquake.  True enough, he was safe in the building.  It was the wailing sirens of the tsunami alert that gave him an inkling of the gravity of the earthquake.  It was only when news of a possible leak in the Fukushima nuclear power plant that he began to be afraid for his safety.

Japan, of all nations in the world, is the most prepared for earthquakes.  The word tsunami is of Japanese origin.  It came into our everyday language because of the Japanese experience.  They, of all nations in the world have the most efficient tsunami warning systems.

I tutored three Japanese students  who used to study at the International School of Manila.  I was in college then and majoring in French.  I tutored them in French for about three years.  Order and cleanliness marked their home.  Their home was multi-generational as their grandmother lived with them.  Every afternoon at four, the grandmother would ring a small bell, light an incense stick and bow reverently to a small photograph of her departed husband.  Industry and skill characterized their lives.  They kept at a task until skill developed into art. Even in the afternoon when it was too hot to work, the ladies of the house would be sewing, cross-stitching, knitting or crocheting. The children would be tinkering with electronic toys, making small robots, building things.

When I see the listless faces of the survivors in the evacuation centers, it is as though they are fish out of water, as displaced as those tugboats heaped onto a pile of cars in a parking lot.  They are not used to being idle.

I overheard at the market, some comment about the earthquake in Japan.  The man said, “mabuti nga sa kanila, ang dami nilang pinatay na mga Pilipino at ni-rape na mga Pilipina! (Serves them right, they killed so many Filipinos and raped so many Filipinas.)” Obviously referring to World War II. How so unforgiving!  Most Japanese did not want war, but go to war they did in obedience to their Emperor whom they thought to be god.  When Japan surrendered, the Japanese were robbed of that one thread that held their society together: the worship of the Emperor.  The Japanese suffered during WWII as well.  To date, only the Japanese know the suffering brought about by an atom bomb.

Which brings me to another point:  I also heard people say that it served the Japanese right to suffer this way because they are so proud.  Again, people mistake Japanese self-reliance for pride.  There is nothing more important to the Japanese than not to lose face, not to be socially humiliated.  That they, the richest economy in Asia will soon need help from other nations is certainly loss of face, a social humiliation that is as difficult to bear as the actual damage of the quake.

God has no pleasure in the death of people, even the wicked.  Why should we?  Why do we derive this fiendish pleasure/relief at seeing others suffer, thinking that their suffering must necessarily be a general punishment for the general sinfulness of a particular race of people.  Yes, God’s wrath is God’s righteousness moving against sin, however, before we think that the earthquake in Japan is a punishment for the Japanese alone, think again.

The stock market in Japan, the Nikkei has experienced a record 14% loss in two days.  This loss is echoed worldwide. Multinational companies of Japanese origin such as Toyota, Honda and Nissan have all stopped production. These companies are all listed in major stock markets world-wide.  World economy will be affected.  The damage in Japan is insured by international insurance companies.  Their losses will be borne by all insured world-wide.

If there is truly a nuclear meltdown, the environment worldwide will be affected because the sea and the atmosphere do not have doors or windows.  All migrating birds and fish exposed to radiation will bring the radiation wherever they travel. Winds and tides travel worldwide.  The Japanese tragedy is a tragedy of all humans on the earth.

Think of all the Filipinos who work in Japan.  Think of all the Filipinos married to Japanese.  Think how the yen remittances from them are fuel to our economy and see how an economic standstill in Japan will result in an economic standstill in the Philippines as well.  Just think of the instant noodles we all like to eat so much, they are imported from Japan.  What would meals be like for Filipinos without instant noodles?  Think about that and then tell me again how this earthquake is a punishment tailor-cut for the Japanese alone, as though the Japanese ought to be singled out.

Scientifically, the earthquake may be explained away as just another movement of the plates on the earth’s crust.  As such, it is an impersonal event. To Christians who believe the testimony of Scripture, the earthquake is the earth groaning in agony as it bears the fallout of man’s collective sinfulness. Humanity itself is under indictment for its many sins among which are our greed and neglect of the duty to be stewards of creation. The earthquake in Japan is not divine wrath unleashed against just the Japanese alone.   It is not. The earthquake and the nuclear meltdown may have happened there.  The damage may be immediate there, but the effect of the earthquake is global. The earth is such a small place, our lives are so intertwined, we are all affected. We are all under divine indictment, we are all under sin.

More and more, wars, conflicts and natural disasters are no longer local concerns, they have become global concerns. Technology, business and information have linked us inextricably.  The whole earth is like the human body.  What do Filipinos say?  “Ang sakit ng kalingkingan ramdam ng buong katawan.”  (What pain you feel in your little finger affects the entire body.)

Maybe it will do well to look a the big picture, this is not purely a Japanes tragedy.  It is a fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy that in the last days, earthquakes will happen.  Not that earthquakes have never happened before, but that earthquakes will be more intense. The magnitude of the damage will be enormous and felt globally. The economic as well as ecologic problems they spawn will affect us all.  The earth and all of creation is groaning for redemption. This is the beginning of sorrows.  The wrath of God has not yet been poured out yet, this is just a foretaste of things to come…who shall abide the day of His coming?