God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah. Psalm 46:1-3

If anyone is asking where a tsunami is described in the scriptures, our text gives a succinct description. Listed as the most devastating of Tsunamis was the one named the Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004. That day seemed like an ordinary Sunday. Fishermen, shopkeepers, Buddhist nuns, medical doctors, and mullahs – all around the Indian Ocean basin – people went about their morning routines. Western tourists on their Christmas holiday flocked to the beaches of Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia, revelling in the warm tropical sun and the blue waters of the sea.

Without warning, at 7:58 am, a fault along the seafloor 250 kilometres (155 miles) southeast of Banda Aceh, in the state of Sumatra, Indonesia, suddenly gave way. A magnitude 9.1 underwater earthquake ripped along 1,200 kilometres (750 miles) of the fault, displacing parts of the seabed upward by 20 meters (66 feet), and opening a new rift 10 meters deep (33 feet).

This sudden movement released an unimaginable amount of energy – equivalent to approximately 550 million times the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. When the seafloor shot upward, it caused a series of huge ripples in the Indian Ocean – that is, a tsunami.  However, tsunamis are uncommon in the Indian Ocean, and people had only about 10 minutes to react. There were no tsunami warnings.

Around 8:08 am, the sea suddenly drew back from the earthquake-devastated shores of northern Sumatra. Then, a series of four enormous waves crashed ashore, the highest recorded at 24 meters tall (80 feet). Once the waves hit the shallows, in some places the local geography channelled them into even larger monsters, as much as 30 meters (100 feet) tall. The seawater roared inland, scouring large areas of the Indonesian coastline bare of human structures, and carrying away an estimated 168,000 people to their deaths.

An hour later, the waves reached Thailand; still un-warned and unaware of the danger, approximately 8,200 people were caught by the tsunami waters, including 2,500 foreign tourists. The waves overran the low-lying Maldive Islands, killing 108 people there, and then raced on to India and Sri Lanka, where an additional 53,000 perished about two hours after the earthquake. The waves were still 12 meters (40 feet) tall. Finally, the tsunami struck the coast of East Africa some seven hours later. Despite the lapse of time, authorities had no way to warn the people of Somalia, Madagascar, Seychelles, Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa. Energy from the quake in far-off Indonesia carried away approximately 300 to 400 people along Africa’s Indian Ocean coast, the majority in Somalia’s Puntland region. Yet in the middle of all these, Psalm 46:1 proved to be true. Here is one amongst a dozen testimonies:

True Story from Meulaboh, West Aceh. Indonesia “Calvary Life Fellowship” 27 January 2005.

God Miraculously Protects His People, Christians in Meulaboh, from the Tsunami

True Story from Meulaboh, West Aceh. Indonesia “Calvary Life Fellowship” 27 January 2005.

We already knew how the dreadful earthquake and tsunami ruined and destroyed the city of Meulaboh in Aceh province of North Sumatera flat unto the ground. But there was a wonderful testimony from the city of Meulaboh where there were about 400 Christian people. On December 25, 2004 they wanted to celebrate Christmas in the city, but the Moslem authorities did not allow them to do it. They were told, “If you Christians want to celebrate Christmas, you must do it outside the city that is in a remote part of the mountain area!” Due to the great desire to hold a special worship service to celebrate the coming of the Savior, the 400 believers decided to go to a retreat in the mountains outside the city. After finishing the celebration, because the day was already dark, they decided to spend the night in the mountains. Then what happened? 

Very early on December 26, 2004 a dreadful earthquake and an enormous high tide of tsunami ruined and destroyed the city of Meulaboh where many were killed by the tsunami. Meulaboh city was made flat to the ground and all of the houses and buildings were washed away and fell to pieces. But all of the believers who went to the worship service in the mountains, the redeemed people of God in Christ Jesus were safe, they were not touched by the tsunami at all! (Be where God expects you to be – my emphasis).

Some Moslems of Meulaboh who were rescued from the disaster even said: “The God of the Christian has punished us, because we have been rude and not kind to them.” Some even said, “Why did so many of our people die but none of the Christians died?”

If those 400 Christians in the city of Meulaboh insisted to hold their Christmas celebration inside the city instead of going to the mountain, for sure many of them would have died also. But because of their humbleness of heart and mind, even though forbidden to celebrate Christmas in the city, they were not angry or furious. In fact they would like to give in to the pressures and decided to celebrate Christmas in the mountains without realizing that the tsunami was about to come. (These are seasons where you must follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. Are you positioned to hear Him?). The result is, all of them were safe and they saw this as the wonderful work of God in Christ Jesus. Let us as the children of the Light not take any revenge because the revenge belongs to the Lord (Romans 12:19-21).

In the coming days of sudden desolation are you sufficiently equipped to see Psalms 46:1 come to reality in your life? Selah.

Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash