When the Earth Shakes

The earthquake of 7.2 magnitude that shook, and is still shaking the Visayas this month, made me fully understand what verses 1-6 in Psalm 19 mean.
The heavens proclaim the glory of God.
The skies display his craftsmanship.
Day after day, they continue to speak;
night after night, they make him known.
They speak without a sound or word;
their voice is never heard.
Yet their message has gone throughout the earth,
and their words to all the world. (NLT)

The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known.(Image credit: www.freehdw.com)

All we need is gaze up and see the most awesome scenes poets and astronomers (with their loftiest thoughts, words, and metaphors) have tried to describe, but have fallen short.

The clouds of endless forms, the tranquility and turbulence beyond and below them, the brightness of day through the sun, the shimmer of night through moons and stars—they have no words, but every single second, hour, day, they declare the glory of God.

This mute, continuing testimony is a declaration of the loudest kind, and yet they have no words. How can there be no God?

And then we look down and the earth shakes. It cracks, it breaks. Giant, man-made buildings, bridges, roads, and homes crumble to the ground in seconds. The treasures of nature—hills, trees, fields, and rocks—they crack wide open, changing the landscape.

We are powerless against the wrath of nature; we can all turn to rubble; everything we have ever built and hoarded can be buried in soil. Like the heavens, the earth and everything in it have no words, but when it shakes, it speaks—in the clearest manner—of the power of the same God who created the spectacle of everything above us.

The quake’s silent but jolting speech are power, glory, majesty, sovereignty, and dominion over all creation, in silence. Only when we open the Scriptures does God speak to us in words. How can anyone play deaf to the presence of God?(Image credit: www.redletterchristians.org)

According to the late Charles Spurgeon, one of the greatest preachers of all time, “The message of the heavens and the earth is not addressed to our ears and not uttered in sounds we are familiar with.The message is for our eyes and heart.” Their testimony is for every man. Now that the land we stand on is still shaking every so often with hundreds of aftershocks, we continue to pray for safety, comfort, sustenance, and protection. Spurgeon explained, “Nature’s words are like those of the deaf and dumb, but grace tells us plainly of the Father.” Yes, it tells us boldly of the Father whose glory the heavens declare.

These are the current quake’s silent but jolting speech: In the silence, we hear power, glory, majesty, sovereignty, and dominion over all creation. Only when we open the Scriptures does God speak to us in words.   How can anyone play deaf to the presence of God?