FROM THE BARREL OF MY PEN
By Gonzalo “Jun” Policarpio


“I KNOW WHO HOLDS TOMORROW”


Natural calamities or disasters can happen anytime, anywhere and can hit anybody- male and female, old and young, rich and poor, Christian or non-Christian.

I believe we, God’s creation, are all subject to His Grand Design that no exceptional genius or savant would be able to decipher. Haven’t you heard of the biblical phrase, “according to His time” to refer to all things to come.

You may read the Book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 9, verses 11-12 where King Solomon declares: “ I have seen something else under the sun; The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all. Morever, no man knows when his hour will come: As fish are caught in a cruel net, or birds are taken in a snare, so men are trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them.”

The Philippines where majority of the people worship God in Heaven recently suffered one of the worst typhoons and floods that killed hundreds in 40 years according to the record.

Yet last year on May 12, 2008, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake killed 70,000 people with 18,000 missing in Sichuan, China. On September 1, 1923, an 8.3 magnitude earthquake hit one third of Tokyo and almost all of Yokohama and killed 143,000 people.

On November 13, 1970, a cyclone killed almost a million people in Bangladesh. During the ancient times before Christ, the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in Southern Italy destroyed the flourishing city of Pompeii.

We all know that following every disaster comes the restoration. Again, I may say this is God’s Way - from death to life, from the Cross to Easter.

Anyway, still God allows us to be prepared for things to come.

There is no doubt that the ravaging storms and floods caught the Philippines unprepared. Most of the Philippine leaders appear to be more preoccupied with stealing the people’s money for their future than using the resources for the people’s welfare.

Let the incoming leaders to emerge in next year’s elections learn a lesson from this calamity, natural or manmade: the cause, I believe is violation of both natural and human laws that affect our environment.

Let’s pray that the just will rule in the Philippines for once.

End