{"id":1404,"date":"2022-02-22T10:21:48","date_gmt":"2022-02-22T15:21:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=1404"},"modified":"2022-02-22T10:21:48","modified_gmt":"2022-02-22T15:21:48","slug":"the-one-who-saves-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2022\/02\/22\/the-one-who-saves-us\/","title":{"rendered":"The One Who Saves Us"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Dee Dee Kuruneru pointed to the grayish line permanently imprinted eight feet up the wall of his nearly demolished seaside house.\u00a0
\u00a0
\u201cThat\u2019s how high the water was,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cIt stayed there for ten minutes.\u201d\u00a0
\u00a0
That extraordinary watermark was the legacy of the tsunami that overwhelmed Dee Dee\u2019s hometown of Galle, a bustling community on the southwest coast of Sri Lanka, the teardrop-shaped island that adjoins India.\u00a0 On December 26, 2004, a massive 9.0 earthquake off Indonesia sent shock waves across the Indian Ocean.\u00a0 What arrived in Galle on an otherwise picture-perfect Sunday morning was not just a wave, but miles and miles of vertically displaced water.\u00a0 Its 25-foot crest inundated everything and everyone in its path.
\u00a0
Dee Dee, alerted by the screams of neighbors, grabbed his wife, two sons, and four other extended family members.\u00a0 Fleeing their home, they saw water rushing down the street from two directions.\u00a0
\u00a0
Dee Dee\u2019s family had less than sixty seconds to climb to the highest point in their neighborhood, the unfinished second story of a nearby house.\u00a0 The two-dozen people who reached that bare slab were saved from drowning.
\u00a0
Thousands of others were not so fortunate.\u00a0 Sri Lanka took a direct hit from the worst global natural disaster in more than a century.\u00a0 Houses, businesses, and human lives in the crowded and impoverished region of Galle were simply swept away.\u00a0 A train engulfed on the tracks just north of the town became a watery tomb for more than 1500 passengers.
\u00a0
The tsunami triggered an unprecedented international response.\u00a0
\u00a0
Among those who ventured to Sri Lanka was a ten-member Habitat for Humanity work team from central Indiana.\u00a0 I was privileged to be part of that group.\u00a0 We took four flights, crossed eleven time zones, and traveled to within a few degrees of the equator to help some of Galle\u2019s poorest residents rebuild.\u00a0
\u00a0
Our group discovered that every standing structure, like Dee Dee\u2019s, had a lasting watermark from the disaster.
\u00a0
I stood with him inside his house, which was so extensively damaged he and his family had to live elsewhere.\u00a0 He pointed to the second-floor concrete slab of the house next door.\u00a0 His neighbor had poured it just three days before the tsunami.\u00a0
\u00a0
\u201cThat man was Jesus for us,\u201d Dee Dee sighed.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\u00a0
I didn\u2019t think I had heard him right.\u00a0 \u201cDee Dee,\u201d I said, \u201caren\u2019t you a Buddhist?\u201d\u00a0 Dee Dee replied, \u201cYes, I am a Buddhist.\u00a0 But I know who Jesus is.\u00a0 Jesus is the one who saves.\u201d\u00a0
\u00a0
Despite all the missteps of his followers, Jesus still retains a remarkable global reputation.\u00a0
\u00a0
We can give ourselves to a lifetime of religious rituals, philosophical speculations, or boundary-pushing personal adventures.\u00a0 But in the end, Jesus is the one who saves<\/em>.\u00a0
\u00a0
For Dee Dee and his family, that meant ten crucial minutes of safety.
\u00a0
For the rest of us, who aren\u2019t likely this week to face the drama of a natural disaster, it might mean a surge of hope when we find ourselves battling thoughts like these:
\u00a0
I\u2019ll never feel happy again.<\/em>
I have no idea how I can ever retire.<\/em>
I feel so discouraged about the state of the world.<\/em>
I haven\u2019t the faintest clue what to do with my life.<\/em>
I see no hope for my family.<\/em>
\u00a0
But Jesus is the one who saves.\u00a0
\u00a0
And in this world and the next he promises never-ending spiritual security.

That’s a reality that can never be swept away.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dee Dee Kuruneru pointed to the grayish line permanently imprinted eight feet up the wall of his nearly demolished seaside house.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cThat\u2019s how high the water was,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cIt stayed there for ten minutes.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0That extraordinary watermark was the legacy of the tsunami that overwhelmed Dee Dee\u2019s hometown of Galle, a bustling community on the southwest coast of Sri Lanka, the… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1405,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[112],"class_list":["post-1404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-suffering"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1404"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1406,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1404\/revisions\/1406"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}