Guest Column - John Wellsman

Earthquakes


With the reports of an earthquake occurring in Maine recently I was reminded of the following incident:

At 7:42 on Oct. l, 1987 my wife and I were just waking up on the 9th floor of the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, CA when the 5.9 magnitude "Whittier" earthquake hit.  We had just arrived the day before from the East Coast and this was our first full day in CA so at first we weren't quite sure what was happening.

The first quite human reaction was, "We've got to get out of here!"  That was followed quickly by the realization of where we were and that there was no real possibility of "getting out of there."  Humanly, as they say, we were "along for the ride."

As a lifelong student of Christian Science, the next thoughts were to turn to God as we had learned to do in any time of need.  With the passage of years, I cannot recall exactly my line of thought or what specific angel thoughts came to me.  However I do know my inital fears were almost immediately replaced with the sense of God's ever-present loving care and that we were entirely safe in that ever-presence.  Looking back on the expreience, II Kings 19:11 was and is certainly applicable, "And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord.  And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and srong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake:"

Although the trembling and shaking continued for what seemed to us a goodly length of time, there was no damage to the hotel, nothing fell from walls, no windows broken, no collapse of anything in the Disneyland park and no injuries in the immediate area.  It seems that there were on or two minor "aftershocks" but that was all.  We were of course extremely grateful for this evidence of God's loving care and protection.

Thus it was with some interest that I observed after breakfast that the courtyard of the hotel was crowded with people rushing towards the lobby and checkout area.  Everyone was carrying or dragging their luggage.  It looked almost like a grade B movie scene where people have thrown things into their suitcases and slammed the lids leaving various items of clothing hanging out the edges.  I actually saw a number of suitcases with clothing protruding.  Since the earthquake was obviously over, at first I could not understand what was the occasion of this obvious panic.

Suddenly it occurred to me that whenever anyone has an emergency encounter be it in an airplane, car, train or boat, when that situation is over and they are on the ground -- "terra firma" as it is cometimes called, many people will get down on their knees and actually kiss the ground in gratitude for their deliverance.  Why?  No matter what or where one is humanly, we have all been taught that the one thing that is safe and secure, that we can always count on, is the earth itself.   major earthquake (and if anyone questions whether the Whittier quake was "major" they need only Google "Whittier earthquake CA" to see accounts of the incident) quite literally shatters that notion and when one realizes the earth isn't as secure as they thought, it can cause extreme fear.  These people were thus in full panic mode, their preconceptions of safety utterly shattered.

My wife and I through our study of Christian Science had come to base our understanding of being on God.  We had come to see Him as the divine Principle of all real being.  Webster defines the word principle in part as : "ground or foundation."  We had come to acknowledge God as the real ground or foundation of our being.  This understanding could never be destroyed or taken from us. (Yes, I resisted the temptation to say this understanding could never be "shaken").  Thus we were able to accomplish the tasks we had come to California for and to thoroughly enjoy the remainder of our visit.  We are indeed graeful for the insights and understanding we have gained from the study of Christian Science.