As I sit here staring at the flashing cursor on my computer screen, words escape me. Yesterday, tornados tore a trail of devastation across the South and particularly in my beloved home state, Alabama.
I am grateful that, to my knowledge, none of my friends or family experienced significant damage, but my heart is saddened as I think of the questions that people who were affected by the storms might ask.
Where is God in all of this?
How can a good and loving God bring such destruction?
What did I do to deserve this?
What do we do now?
The Bible tells us that…
God is good and loving;
His ways are right and just;
His works are perfect and faithful.
So, how do we reconcile what we see around us with the words of God?
We have to realize that this world is upside down. God’s dictionary and our dictionaries are not the same. Our definition of “good” is nowhere near the definition of God’s. I’m not talking about a difference in semantics; I’m talking about a dramatic difference in the perspective we have and the perspective of God.
Our ways are imperfect
Our goals misdirected
Our sight limited
But the questions still beckon, so I took them to God this morning as I was praying for those who experienced the destruction of the storms and for those who will go out to help clean up. As I was praying what seemed to be a small and insignificant prayer for those who are hurting, God reminded me of something sweet and wonderful: He makes all things new.
That sounds great, doesn’t it? But what we fail to realize is that for something to be new, we have to replace the old. Destruction has to happen, whether physically or spiritually, before He can restore it.
My prayer today is that even though our earthly eyes see devastation and destruction, that we will close our spiritual eyes and see beyond those images to the hope of restoration that is bigger than any storm.