My First Earthquake

Because I work in my home office all day, I am immediately sensitive to differences of any sort—sounds, light, temperature, etc. Just before 2:00 EST today, I began hearing VERY slight noises like might be made if a bookcase or table were creaking back and forth—ever so slight noises. I actually got up and walked around my office trying to pinpoint the origin of the sound but couldn't. It stopped, so I returned to work.

A half-hour or so later I happened to turn on a radio and heard that a 5.9 earthquake had occurred at 1:53 p.m. just NW of Richmond, VA, about 300 miles from where I live outside Charlotte. That explains that.

I am proud to say I lived through my first (as far as I know) earthquake. Hope the folks in Virginia are okay—and that it rattled a few cages in the nearby nation's capital.

Every time the earth is shaken by an earthquake, I think of Hebrews 12:26-29:

When God spoke from Mount Sinai his voice shook the earth, but now he makes another promise: Once again I will shake not only the earth but the heavens also. This means that all of creation will be shaken and removed, so that only unshakable things will remain. Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe. For our God is a devouring fire.

Update: Turns out this was serious, as everyone knows by now. This picture is of the National Cathedral in Washington, the left-hand spire of which was shaken and broken off during the quake: