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Prayer for safety in China
Originally appeared on spirituality.com
Even as the Chinese people continue to recover from the massive effects of the earthquake that struck on May 12, a new danger has emerged in the form of a river in the Sichuan Province highlands whose flow was blocked by the earthquake. The blockage has created a giant lake held back only by a rock and mud embankment. Should it give way, at least a million people could be affected.
Officials have been working hard to get in the heavy equipment needed to drain off the water and to reinforce the dam, but this is a slow process because of the earthquake damage. Others are working on evacuation plans—including rehearsals—just in case. If the dam broke, they say it would take about four hours for the wall of waters to reach populated areas—not a lot of advance notice when so many people are affected.
Our prayers can support these efforts but can also affirm that disaster isn’t inevitable; it is possible to turn aside the danger. There’s a passage in Mary Baker Eddy’s book, Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896 that reinforces the universal power of prayer to help. She wrote: “‘As in water face answereth to face,’ and in love continents clasp hands, so the oneness of God includes also His presence with those whose hearts unite in purposes of goodness” (152).
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