On
August 6, 1945, Tsutomu Yamaguchi traveled to Hiroshima, Japan for business
trip. Sadly, this was the day that the Enola
Gay dropped an atomic bomb and destroyed the city. Somehow, Yamaguchi
survived the ordeal.
He
returned home and arrived two days later. The following day, August 9, another
atomic bomb was unleashed on Yamaguchi's hometown, Nagasaki. Unbelievably,
Yamaguchi lived through both tragedies; he was the only survivor of both of
Japan's atomic bombings. (Two years ago, Yamaguchi passed away at the age of
93.)
I
do not know where Yamaguchi received the fortitude to endure for 65 more years.
I would think that after seeing two atomic bombs fall on two of your nation’s cities
in the space of four days, it would be easy to become disillusioned with life.
Surely,
Yamaguchi’s suffering approached that of Job. Who knows? Perhaps Yamaguchi
somehow came across a Bible and received the strength from the great book we
call Job.
If
he read the book, one thing he would have found—the need for humility when
facing a fallen world. Job spent most of the book thinking he had a case
against God. Finally, when God came down for a visit, Job found himself
intimidated. As bad as his life had become, as much as he had suffered, as much
as he had thought he had known about the world, he realized he did not even
have a level one awareness of how the universe is run.
For
some reason, Job found this message liberating.
The
next time we feel life is ripping us off and the cosmos is going against us,
perhaps we too can find strength in a message from Job: God knows more about
running this universe than we do.
Source for Yamaguchi account: World Magazine
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