Still No Answers

It is hard to figure what to write on this day when death and devastation and overwhelming despair are present among so many who were in the path of the storm which raged through darkened countryside.  It is a day which will be remembered and talked about as long as folks gather and remember.  Praying that the storm would find a different path only meant that we were praying that others would suffer instead of us.  Praying that Jesus would step into the moment with a word which would calm the fury of the storm was a challenge for even the most faithful as everyone watched its relentless journey toward the waiting shore.  We knew no liturgical words to save us.  We only knew to ready ourselves and then to sit and wait. 

Of course, the greater question which we are often afraid to ask is,"Why the storm?  Why does God allow such to come?  Why did He not put a stop to it while it churned over deep waters where no one could be harmed?  Where was He during the dark horror endured by so many?"  I wish I had the answers to my questions.  At least, I wish I had answers that would give explanation to what has been endured.  I wish I had answers that would make all the personal pain more bearable, but I do not.  I never have.  As much as I have wanted to give some good answers to folks who were the sufferers and not just academic seekers, I have always come up empty.    

On this aftermath of a day not to be forgotten, I am still empty.  I do know it is not the first time I have sought an answer I cannot find.  The first time I ran into the question was sometime in my seventh year when my father's life ended suddenly in an airplane collision.  Over the years, I have asked it a thousand times at the juncture of tragedy personally experienced, or experienced by someone whose care was entrusted to me.  What I do not know has not kept me from continuing to live inside what I do know which is the certainty of God's eternal care.  The Word of the Lord was spoken through the prophet Isaiah and, thus, we hear God saying, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways...so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:8-9).  I do not have the answers to my questions, but I do have a God who, even in the moments I cannot understand, still is in control.