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Christmas and the Tsunami
January 4, 2005
Love and tragedy. Can the two go together? Like any event that causes so much death, pain and suffering, the tsunami in South Asia will remain etched in hearts and minds for a long time. It may well be remembered as the 2004 Killer Tsunami. It is now reported that the death toll went beyond 100,000 with the property and economic destruction estimated to cost billions of dollars. The human suffering that comes along is immeasurably terrible. Of all the time this can happen, tragedy struck just the day after Christmas, ironically a celebration of God's love for the world because He sent Jesus Christ to us. So again we are confronted by the same questions we heard over and over again in the aftermath of 9/11. "Where is God in all of these? Does God really care? Is God really a God of love? Why did He allow all these to happen?"
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"Why did God allow such a thing to happen? I still have the same answer. I don't know. But this I know: God feels every pain. He cares. We are worth to Him more than we oftentimes realize."
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How do we deal with such questions seeing and knowing the real pain people experience? Nobody grows old a stranger to suffering. Do sufferings cancel out the love of God? If indeed God is love and He proved that love beyond any shadow of doubt by sending the Lord Jesus, why does He allow things like this? Can we just simply accept one and turn a blind eye to the other and dump the issue altogether by saying, "He is God; He knows what He is doing?" Tragedies like this often doesn't make sense. It is much easier for us not to be consumed with such painful thoughts because none of us are directly affected. Yet if one or more of the dead is a wife, husband, child, brother or sister, then a monster of an issue hits us squarely where it really hurts. On one hand, tens of thousands of people are dead or injured. On the other hand, God showed His mercy to the rest of us who were not affected. We may just be touching the fringes of the unfathomable depths of God's ways. If you ask me, I don't really know the answer why. All I know is that God is righteous in all His ways.
God revealed to Abraham that Sodom will be destroyed. Abraham remained standing before the LORD . Then Abraham approached him and said: "Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing - to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Genesis 18:22-25 NIV) He was trying to make sense of God's ways and after interceding for the righteous, Abraham was convinced that the Judge of all the earth will do right. It was not because he knew all the reasons why, it was simply because at that time of his life he understood the way of the Lord. He knew God.
My wife suggested that perhaps it may be God's judgment of sin but whether the gravity of sin is the cause of this tragedy or not, I really don't know. Only God knows the heart of man and unless He reveals the reason as He did to Abraham and to many prophets no one really knows. Lest we be fast to draw our conclusion Jesus actually addressed this matter.
Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them - do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” (Luke 13:1-5 NIV)
Whatever the cause, whether it is human culpability (Pilate) or natural disaster (most probably an earthquake), the Lord goes beyond the issue of sentimentality as painful as any tragedy is. Our hurt feelings often obscure our perspective of spiritual things. Our self-righteousness finds us pointing accusing fingers at others or worse, at God. But the Lord focuses on the eternal, on things with eternal value. He brought home the point that only from the perspective of eternity shall we be able to understand the dealings of the Lord. Otherwise we get stuck with sorrow, bitterness or even anger with just a little or no hope at all for the future. The call to repentance brings to light the heart of God for all. Those who are rightly related with Him, regardless of the manner of death, will suddenly be translated to the place where God is and where there are no more sighing, tears and sorrow. Those who are not will finally see that God can never be accused of being unjust or unfair. Do you agree that it is His mercy that the tsunami did not kill us instead? It is His grace at work when we begin to truly understand that He holds our life in His hands. There's a time to be born and a time to die, yes, but it is always God's choosing. He is sovereign. "See now that I myself am He! There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand. (Deuteronomy 32:29 NIV)
To the inquisitive mind, there is often a paucity of satisfactory explanation. The more we know God, the little we seem to know Him. We can only touch the surface of who He is but even that can be enough to overwhelm our feeble minds. Paul had to inject a word of praise in the course of his letter to the Romans. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! (Romans 11:33 KJV) That we can only understand in part becomes a stumbling block to many so that in their daily affairs God is put completely out of the equation. Such a mistake is common and fatal that the psalmist calls him a fool [who] says in his heart, "There is no God." (Psalm 53:1 NIV)
Shall not the Judge of the earth do right? Our God is righteous, the Giver of every good and perfect thing with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Against that backdrop, the death of at least 100,000 is quite overwhelming and difficult to understand. Perhaps the question still lingers. Why did God allow such a thing to happen? I still have the same answer. I don't know. But this I know: God feels every pain. He cares. We are worth to Him more than we oftentimes realize. Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. (Luke 12:6-7 NIV) With eternity in mind, Jesus came that all may be reconciled to the Father. Jesus wept over His own people who rejected Him. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! (Luke 13:34 NIV) Though rejected, God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8 NASB) When it is difficult to understand God, the cross stands tall as the irrefutable proof of His absolute love for all of us.
Called to warn Nineveh, Jonah fled instead because he knew the mercies of God. He wanted the Ninevites to be destroyed. He prayed to the LORD, "O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity." (Jonah 4:2 NIV) True enough because the Ninevites repented, God did not destroy them.
Every time God allowed calamity to come on His people, He never failed to warn and call them back first. He sent prophets and holy men and women who for years called for repentance. Many were rejected and/or killed. The Lord pleaded and encouraged them to return to Him even in the years when they were captives of the Babylonians. The truth remains today; He is unchanging. Are we not more important than the sparrow in the sky or the lilies in the field? God's capacity for sorrow is immeasurable. If the pain is commensurate with the degree of love then how can we even begin to measure His sorrow for each of the 100,000 who died? "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne. Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. (Isaiah 49:15-16 NIV)
As Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, watched the destruction of Jerusalem and the death of tens of thousands of his people, he was overwhelmed with sorrow until he saw hope in God Himself.
Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:
Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him."
The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;
it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the LORD. (Lamentations 3:21-26 NIV)
Whatever my questions are about such a terrible tragedy, everything is held in place by the sure knowledge of His righteousness and the certainty of His word, of His promises. Truly, great is His faithfulness. Yes, the Judge of all the earth will always do right.
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