Thursday, January 15th, 2009 will be a day that many will remember. In all sorts of ways it was extremely unforgettable. But it is also a day that confronts us with challenging realities and causes us to ponder and think upon the God who we believe is there.

In the same day, a pilot of US Airways Flight 1549 was able to successfully land an Airbus A-320 into the Hudson River and 150+ passengers survived, yet 1,000 miles away, two little girls - ages 5 & 3 were unable to escape their home which had caught on fire.

And inevitably the questions that are asked both in our conversations and the quiet thoughts of our minds are: Where was God in all of this? Why did God allow these things to happen? If God was there, why did he spare the people in the Hudson River but not the little girls? How could God make that kind of choice? Why one and not the other? Is God really in control? How can I worship and love a God who allows these things to happen?

These are hard questions. They force us to rise above our typical religious conversation of the acceptability of alcohol consumption and the hem length of a woman’s dress and place us deeply in the middle of conversations that have massive, soul shaking, and eternal implications. Because ultimately what you must confront in answering these questions is the very person of God Himself. Who is God? What is He like? What is His purpose in the decisions He makes? What is His character? What is His nature? Who am I? And how must I relate to this God?

And your answers to those questions will determine how you respond to God on a day like January 15th. Will you shake your fist at Him at be angry? Will you call Him unfair? Will you deem Him unloving? Will you deem Him to be unworthy of worship and walk away from Him? Will you deem Him powerful enough to float a plane but too impotent to extinguish a blaze? Will you humble yourself before Him? Or will you rise up with pride and declare that you know better than God how the events of the universe should have unfolded?

The Bible has massive things to say about God’s sovereignty over human suffering. They are not easy. They are in fact very hard truths. They are rocks upon which our fanciful notions of the nature of God are broken. But when tragedy in life unfolds, it is better for us to be broken on the rocks of God’s truth than God be spread out on the sands of our fancy ideas.

I will never claim to know the limitless purposes God had in holding a huge plane intact but allowing a home to burn. But there are a few things that I do know:

  • God was there the whole time
  • God could have allowed the plane to sink or extinguished the fire but for reasons beyond human understanding, in His infinite goodness and wisdom, He chose not to
  • In all of this, God was loving, kind, just, merciful, gracious, and holy
  • That instead of asking why some die and others live, a better question to ask is “why have I been spared?” and to marvel at why I haven’t perished in my sin (Luke 13)

Jesus isn’t a teddy bear that you take to bed with you at night. He’s the most massive reality in the universe that defines our very existence. The Bible tells us to rejoice with those who rejoice (New York) and weep with those who weep (Holts Summit). There are days in our world that force us to do both in very stark and challenging ways. January 15th was one of those days. May it cause us all to think deeply about a God who is there and what He truly is like.