“Everything started shaking, people were screaming, houses started collapsing … it’s total chaos.”

That was the scene Reuters reporter Joseph Guyler Delva witnessed in Haiti Tuesday afternoon. You can begin to grasp the scale of carnage inflicted by the magnitude 7.0 earthquake by looking at some of the mind-staggering photos coming from the impoverished nation. Rubble strewn with body parts; gashed and contorted bodies; mud-stained faces of orphaned children; a grief-stricken father holding his limp child.

Situated 10 miles from the epicenter, Port-au-Prince was Haiti’s bustling capital. Today it’s a graveyard. As relatives retrieve the bodies and limbs of their loved ones, and rotting corpses pile up on the streets, authorities are having trouble estimating the total dead. Conservative estimates put it at 100,000; some believe it could get up to half a million. That’s just the dead. Countless more are injured, while the international Red Cross projectsone third of Haiti’s population, roughly 3 million people, will require emergency aid.

Of course, the international community is rushing to provide help. But officials and humanitarian agencies fear the aftermath could be more lethal than the earthquake itself. Tens of thousands lack shelter and are scrambling to fill aching bellies. Without clean water and proper sanitation, and with hundreds of collapsed homes, schools and hospitals filled with decomposing flesh, entire cities and communities are susceptible to disease. Critical infrastructure—roads, buildings, drainage systems—are in shambles, hampering rescue and humanitarian efforts.

Then there’s the emotional and psychological desolation. How do you console, let alone heal, a nation paralyzed by heartache and hopelessness?

Humanitarian agencies and church groups are funneling plane-loads of supplies into the country. Haiti clearly needs them. But what about answering the questions, and providing understanding and insight into why this earthquake happened? Around the world, many are confused and baffled. Others are disheartened—not just by the carnage, but because they have no explanation for why it happened. Why now, why Haiti? How many religious leaders possess the spiritual medicine that will calm and comfort, that will provide hope to the newly orphaned child, the limbless survivor, the father who just lost his family?

And really, is there even an inkling of hope to be gleaned from a catastrophic earthquake?

Absolutely! More than you can imagine. And the truth is, the minds of those deeply affected by the Haiti disaster—including you, if you’re sufficiently moved and humbled by what you have witnessed—are primed to gain this hope.

Intense tragedy often comes with the beautiful byproduct of humility.

The blood-spattered folk in Haiti are hurt, dazed and vulnerable—many physically, but most, if not all, mentally and spiritually. These people need assistance from an outside source, they’re totally incapable of solving this crisis themselves.

Gut-wrenching though it may be to Him, this attitude is actually one that God can work with. “[T]o this man will I look,” He says, “even to him that is poor [needy, humble] and of a contrite [stricken] spirit … ” (Isaiah 66:2). Surely the tragedy in Haiti has helped create a comparatively humble attitude and a “contrite spirit” in many Haitians, and perhaps even some onlookers. Overwhelming crises such as this have a tendency to ground us, to remind us of how small, how vulnerable, how insignificant we truly are. Sadly, such humility is often short-lived. Nevertheless, God Himself looks to the person with such an attitude. He considers true humility gained through catastrophe a primer for greater understanding.

And He gives it, in abundance. Through the pages of the Bible, God explains—in detail—why such catastrophes happen. The causes are spelled out from Genesis through Revelation for those with humble and open minds. For a more thorough understanding of why the Haiti earthquake, read “Where Was God?” For now, let’s gain a more hopeful perspective on the earthquake in Haiti by considering the tragedy in the context of a prophecy in Matthew 24.

Both the Old and New Testaments speak about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. In Matthew 24, the disciples, gathered on the Mount of Olives, ask Jesus what signs will precede His Second Coming. Christ begins answering the disciples in verses 4-5: “And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I [Christ] am Christ; and shall deceive many.” Christ’s first warning was that people—false teachers and ministers—would come in His name, talking about Christ, but not teaching Christ’s message. These false ministers, He said, would deceive many.

Christ’s prophecy continues: “And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in [different] places” (verses 6-7). Notice, in addition to the “wars and rumors of wars”—surely an apt description of the current state of international relations—Jesus told His disciples that His return would be preceded by an uptick in natural disasters.

In fact, Christ stated specifically that before His return there would be earthquakes in different places!

Notice also, Jesus told His disciples that famine—a shortage of food and water—and then pestilences, or disease epidemics, would accompany these natural disasters. Can you begin to see the hope in the tragic earthquake in Haiti?

This earthquake was prophesied nearly 2,000 years ago, and is a sign that Jesus Christ is about to return to this Earth!

Perhaps that sounds preposterous—a callous attempt to spiritualize away the physical pain and mental and emotional anguish millions are suffering. But that is exactly what Jesus Himself prophesied. There simply isn’t any other logical way to understand that prophecy. When we understand and believe the Bible, the quake in Haiti on Tuesday—as well as the quake that caused some damage in northern California last Friday—takes on added significance. While our eyes well and our hearts ache for the victims of earthquakes, the tragedy stirs a renewed hope and confidence in the fact that Jesus Christ is about to return.

Emotionally, the Haiti earthquake is gut-wrenching. Prophetically, it’s a sign that the most exciting event ever to occur in the age of man is imminent!

Sadly, many people will not believe Christ’s warning in Matthew 24, even though calamities such as this will increase in both intensity and regularity. Few will latch on to the invigorating hope buried amid the rubble and ruin. Many people, particularly the scholarly, will mock this prophecy by Christ—even though they themselves have absolutely no answers for what happened in Haiti and remain utterly devoid of hope.

Don’t let this be you! Again, take the opportunity now to read “Where Was God?” to see the spectacular and enduring hope buried under the rubble in Haiti. As Christ Himself prophesied, natural disasters like this are a sign. This present evil world is about to end altogether, and then—Jesus Christ will return!