WHERE IS GOD WHEN TRAGEDY STRIKES?

 Following the shooting at the Portland mall and then the massacre in the New Town elementary school, an age-old question comes from a few, “Where was God?”  This isn’t an unfair inquiry for there is a reply.

Yet, some seem to ask as if He didn’t care or didn’t have the ability to do anything….or He just doesn’t exist.  None of these three possibilities offer the correct answer.

The question of Where was God? is a valid one.  And, there is a solution.

First of all, God isn’t a theoretical Police Officer with a gigantic badge and whistle to match.  He isn’t God in order to direct human traffic by shouting out detailed moves and calculated orders.  Nor is He a control freak forcing men and women to do only what He wants.

God is God.  So….where was He? 

God was well ahead of the shooting in Oregon and the devastation in Connecticut.  Where He was is profoundly important.  He was found hanging His Son on the cross to wipe out impending death.  God was standing by while rulers and military leaders framed Jesus for being guilty when he was truly innocent. 

God never broke out in rescue as His Son was forced upon the cross.  Yet, Jesus raised the identical question from the cross, “My God!  My God!  Why have you forsaken me?”  Even then, God remained silent.

Father walked away from Son upon the cross.  It was such a horrible day that darkness filled the earth for three hours in mid-afternoon.  Jesus became terribly dark with guilt….our guilt. 

So where was God during these recent tragedies?  He was covering for the innocent and the guilty some 2000 years back for precisely such times as these.  Where was God?  He was spending His ideal and perfect Jesus in payment for both heartache and break of all mankind for all time.

Our nation has experienced gruesome tragedy; and such isn’t over.  More will come.  But the question is not “Where was God?”  The question is “Where do we put our faith to eventually and personally rise from the dead?”  Our response is to be that we put our faith in the God who emptied the grave.

Death will continue to happen for awhile.  Yet, it will only be temporary in terms of time.  Eternity is to be our experience.

Sacrificial provision and heartbreaking preparation in giving up Jesus for all of us is where God has been all along.  Believe it.