I know we’ve all seen in the news about the tragic earthquake that hit China last week.  I just read an article that states the number of dead and missing is 70,000 now.  Seventy thousand people…SEVENTY THOUSAND SOULS!  Seventy thousand – that’s hard for my mind to comprehend.  North Charleston estimated population is 87,000.  That would be like losing almost all of North Charleston.  And it doesn’t even come close to the COUNTLESS others who are displaced without homes or families or the widespread destruction.  When disasters strike, we hear (or may even ask) lots of questions like: Why did God do this?  How can He be such a loving God, yet bring this on His creation?  If God desires for no man to perish, then why would He do this to a region where people predominantly do not know Him?

Good questions I think.  How would you answer them? 

The answers I’ve typically given in the past have been “God’s ways are higher than ours” or “we live in a fallen world where bad things happen” or “Satan is only out to steal, kill, and destroy.  All of which are true!  But what do they say about God?  To those who don’t know Him, these responses may make God appear distant and uninvolved.  In order for any lasting good to come out of tragic disasters like this one is for God’s love and glory to be made known.  The truth is He does desire for no one to perish.  That is precisely why He sent Christ Jesus to the cross, to provide the Way back to a right relationship with Himself, God the Father. 

So how do we explain the reason for disasters?  After the flood (the most widespread destruction this planet has ever seen), God makes a covenant promise with Noah to never again bring destruction like this on the planet or mankind.  I’ve read this story many times, but this time Genesis 8:22 jumped off the page.  God is talking and He says “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”  “As long as the earth endures….”  Natural disasters aren’t God’s fault.  And as much as I hate to admit it, they aren’t Satan’s fault either.  Sometimes we pin things on Satan that make him seem bigger, uglier, and so much worse than what he really is, but I believe it’s much healthier for us to not give credit to him where credit isn’t due.  When sin entered the world with Adam and Eve back in the Garden of Eden, the deterioration of the world began.  Mankind sinned, bringing imperfection into God’s perfect creation.  The world will one day come to the end of its downward spiral of destruction, but that doesn’t leave us without a hope.  Going along with what I said earlier, God did not, has not, and will not abandon His people.  He’s provided the Source of hope, the Source of life that will never end.  Look for Him in the midst of disasters.  Let Him be your comfort, your protection, your understanding, your provision.