Koh Lak. The memories flood back. I’m watching “The Impossible”, the movie about the Sumatra earthquake that formed a Tsunami that hit Thailand in 2004 while I was still there teaching. I’m surprised at the tears that come as movies scenes flash my own scenes. I remember the playing cards staring up eerily untouched in the midst of the mass destruction. The sound of the bulldozers looking for bodies in the tsunami made lakes. I remember the bucket brigades we did to make the temporary houses for wounded survivors. I remember the temples stacked with coffins and the bloated pictures of those inside. I remember hearing the stories of my Thai friends recounting what they heard that day from the victims who needed to tell their story. Oh, when I saw the scene of the dad talking to other survivors and all of them in tears, my heart just broke. This wave did not discriminate its victims.
Oh the tragedy of that day. The destruction. The loss of life. The loss of dreams. The loss of hope for so many. Even as this family finds each other I am reminded of all the ones that did not. I remember he sound of the loud speaker announcing the new bodies that were found.
As I recalled those painful days, I couldn’t help but think of the tragedies that hit even this month…the loss of a friend’s baby, a new widow from a helicopter crash on the island, meeting the pilot and his parents as they grieved the loss, the death of a friends brother, the death of a father. So much pain. Where is the hope? Why so much tragedy?
I remember all the Thai Christians that got to bring the gospel to areas in Thailand that had never heard the name of Jesus before the Tsunami. I remember a church being built instead of a rec center due to the witness of these Thai people. I remember seeing loads of supplies coming from all around the world to help this devastated land. I have seen people come to all my friend’s aid to comfort and support them in their pain. Rather than people running from the pain, I have seen the Lord use many to run to it. I believe that the earth groans from the garden curse. I believe that the Lord grieves with us in our loss. I believe that He has a purpose for the pain and we do not live without hope. Oh to know that our Lord is sovereign in all things. Oh to know that He hears the cries of the broken hearted and crushed in spirit. Oh to know that He sent His son to die for the pain and cost of sin so that we can have hope of a new heaven and earth with no natural disasters or untimely deaths. I don’t know all that the Lord is doing, but I do trust Him. I still cry at death and pain, but I have a foundation of hope in my God. I pray that you do too.