By now, you have all heard of the devastating earthquake that struck the country of Haiti. The death tolls are already in the tens of thousands and will no doubt rise even higher. Already, millions of dollars in aid relief and thousands of aid workers have flooded the country trying their best to help wherever and however they can. I am sure that I speak for us all when I say that our hearts grieve for this massive loss of life.
Anytime a tragedy like this strikes, people begin asking the question, “Where is God in all of this?” People want to know, “Why would a gracious and loving God let such a thing happen?” I will admit to you that questions like those have wandered across my own mind many times. In one sense, the answer to those questions is very simplistic, but it is the simplicity of the right answer that tends to cause us so many problems because the simplicity of the answer overwhelms our finite minds.
From everything we learn from the Bible about the nature of God, we can conclude that the right answer to those questions is that whatever God does, He does it according to His own eternal purpose and ultimately for His own glory. The unbeliever will immediately scoff at this answer that I have proposed because it flies directly in the face of man’s carnal understanding of who God is and what God does. The believer, however, is able to take comfort in the fact that God is in control of everything that comes to pass. I admit to you that the answer is simplistic, and like I have said, that simplicity is what gives us so many problems.
The immediate problem arises when we try to figure out how the death of tens of thousands of Haitians fits into the eternal purpose and will of God, and especially how that is something that brings Him glory. That is a question that honestly I cannot answer, but I want to try to give you a partial answer by way of an illustration. Consider the two pictures below:
Would you be surprised to know that both pictures are of the same thing? The picture on the left is zoomed in 800%. It is not a very pretty picture, and more than likely, no one would want to look at it. It just looks like brown lines with white, pink, and orange lines running through the middle. The picture does not really make any sense. The picture on the right, however, is easily recognizable. You can clearly see that it is the famous tile mosaic representing the five loaves and two fishes. The picture on the right contains symmetry and beauty that anyone can appreciate.
Those two pictures serve to illustrate the problem that we so often have in trying to understand what God is doing in the world. We live too close to the events of life for us to see the clear image, so all we see is the image zoomed in at 800% or more. Because God is eternal, He knows the end from the beginning and knows that what He is doing in the world is a very beautiful thing.
This morning, President Barack Obama issued a statement that was posted on the White House Blog concerning the destruction in Haiti. He said, “We stand in solidarity with our neighbors to the south, knowing that but for the grace of God, there we go” (http://tinyurl.com/yedwxxq). For once, I have to say that I agree with President Obama’s remarks. Although he is far from being a biblical, spiritual leader for our nation, he has made a statement concerning the grace of God that we all should take to heart. Why did God chose to send this earthquake to Port-au-Prince, Haiti instead of Atlanta, GA where I minister? Why was it Port-au-Prince, Haiti instead of Dallas, TX or Chicago, IL? The answer has absolutely nothing to do with the location of geological fault lines. The answer is because of the grace of God. I realize that what I have just said does not give much comfort to the friends and families of those who have lost loved ones in Haiti. Please believe me when I say that I do mourn their loss and am very sorry. However, there is a message for us all in this disaster. For those of us “unaffected” by the tragedy, we can rejoice in the fact that God has spared us. It is because of His grace that we are not digging through rubble searching for our loved ones.
God is in control of all things, and we can rejoice in that. I am sure that some preacher somewhere will begin to outline all of the wickedness in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and come to the conclusion that this earthquake was the judgment of God upon them. Considering the wickedness of the city that I live in, I am not ready to come to that conclusion for fear that my city is next. Any city in America deserves the judgment of God just as much. It is only because of God’s grace and longsuffering mercy that He has not judged us more severely already. President Obama was right when he said, “But for the grace of God, there we go.”
