I was reading about the violence and death going on in Mexico, especially along the border with the US, and could not help but think of these verses:
Revelation 6:3 When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other. To him was given a large sword.
I cannot imagine living in a place that violent. We've seen things like that - a gun battle between rival gangs that killed at least 28 people - on television for years. But on tv it was always 'pretend'. This is for real. This is reality. It makes me feel a bit sick to my stomach. This is not far away Africa, where tribes fight against each other. This is America, North and Central.

Actually, when I think about it - the Indian tribes used to fight each other like that. And the pioneers used to have wars like that with the Indians. So, in reality, not much has changed after all. It's more like we lived through an unusual time of relative peace, and now are back at it.

Only more so with the weapons used today.
Sigh.

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We read the news about the tornadoes all across the mid section of the United States. Wow. And these after all of the flooding that has gone on. And we read that more flooding, due to the snow melt in the Rockies, will soon begin. This is an amazing time in history. An amazing time to live. Again - wow.

I wonder when the New Madrid fault will go? Or the Cascade fault? Or the San Andreas? Or one of the many other faults, known and unknown, that criss-cross the United States? I really think it will happen 'soon'. No dates, no time tables, no guesses - just 'soon'.

And then there are the volcanoes. All across California, Oregon and Washington. Earthquake activity may indicate that something volcanic may be happening in Nevada. Wyoming has the huge Yellowstone caldera. Then there is the volcanic areas of Colorado and especially New Mexico, and there are always little tremors going on along the Colorado/New Mexico border. I think most people would be very surprised to learn how much the earth is moving under their feet!

I was surprised to learn a few days ago that the Rio Grande River flows along a rift valley. Rift valley - you know, like the Rift Valley in Africa! The earthquakes happening in Chihuahua, Mexico, are also in that rift valley. And the rift valley may be opening up just a little bit, spreading wider!?! And where does the rift start? Ha! In one of my favorite places in Colorado - the San Luis Valley, with the Sangre de Cristo mountains on the east and the San Juan mountains on the west, and to the far north, the Arkansas River canyon (on the other side of Poncha Pass - I don't know if it's actually connected to the rift, but the earth there has obviously been torn and tossed about by earthquakes in the past).

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I wonder what other time in history compares? With the natural disasters and the wars and the fast changing government of freedom to government of oppression in the United States ... which part of history most closely resembles our current time period? I don't know. It is sobering to think of.