[Forest Keeper]

But I've come to realize those 20 seconds of utter helplessness in the face of black death was more "real" than anything I experience on a daily basis. Our physical lives are a shadow-play, ephemeral and fleeting. We live by the will of another. And everything physical surrounding that one monumental fact is a parade of smoke and vapour and illusions and pretense and our own vain strivings. We live and breathe and have our being by and for and through Jesus Christ. We are spiritual beings, temporarily taking up residence on earth.

Amen, and thank you for your testimony. I can't imagine what a terrifying experience that must have been like, or the sense of loss afterward. I hope you were able to salvage many of the irreplaceables. Thank God that you had Him to lean on. I don't know how lost people get through situations like that. Those experiences really do put our perspectives right, just like you said.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

I hope you were able to salvage many of the irreplaceables.

Since Romans 8:28 reminds us of the rock-solid truth that all things work for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose, my family learned a valuable lesson from the earthquake.

Material possessions mean very little. Christ and life are that matter. In that order. 8~)