Thought for the week - 29 May 2008

Where was God in the Earthquake?

A major argument used by people who reject the Christian faith in a loving God is that such a being could never permit the innocent to suffer.  Whereas there may be an element of human responsibility for some illnesses, accidents and natural disasters, no one except the Creator, or the forces which shaped our planet, can be blamed for the seismic convulsions which have brought such terrible suffering and loss to Sichuan province in China. 

It’s true there’s to be an inquiry into the building standards applied in erecting the schools which collapsed, virtually wiping out an entire generation in some towns, and it seems all too likely that shoddy workmanship and greed for profit contributed to the scale of the disaster.  But still the shocking pictures and agonised weeping drive us to cry out ‘Why?’

There is no easy answer, but the Bible tells of the coming of Jesus, the Son of God yet a real human being, born in poverty, a refugee, healing, comforting, whose purpose in life was to those help those he met, suffering rejection and misunderstanding, and then being executed on trumped-up charges.  Jesus, who went through all this and came out the other side, is the evidence that the God of the Bible knows what it feels like to suffer, and that his redemptive and restorative power is greater than the powers of evil and death. 

Try setting alongside that, as practical evidence of the reality of God’s love, the way Christian believers react in extremities of suffering, finding strength and comfort in each other and sharing it through acts of compassion.   This will undoubtedly be true in China, where Christian believers are numbered in their millions and the church is growing at a phenomenal rate.

A prayer:  God of compassion, please comfort the suffering and bereaved people of China, and bring them speedy relief and help.   Help us to do our part too.  Amen.

Heather Williamson

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