I now have one less thing on my list of “Never Have I Ever.” I have now felt an earthquake for the first time! We were over at a friend’s house for an Easter BBQ, and I had just sat down with my plate of food at the table. It felt like my chair was swaying, or the table was moving, or my head was spinning–I couldn’t tell which. I checked my chair to see if I was on uneven ground, but things kept swaying. Finally someone else asked, “Does it seem to be spinning?” We realized that we all were spinning or swaying, but none of us wanted to say anything because we thought it was just us! Then someone pointed out that the pool had tidal waves going through it, and no one was swimming at the time. It must have been an earthquake.

Sure enough, Stephen looked online, and a 7.2 magnitude earthquake had hit Baja California. We had felt it all the way in Phoenix. I guess I had imagined an earthquake to feel like a definite vibration instead of a swaying motion. It was the strangest feeling. About half an hour later, we heard it reported on the news that Phoenix had felt the shock of the quake centered in northwest Mexico.

I thought it was fitting to feel my first quake on Easter since we were celebrating the  death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Matthew 27 tells us that when Jesus died on the cross, “the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised;” God used an earthquake to raise His children from the dead over 2,000 years ago! Earthquakes still speak to the power of God.