WHERE WAS GOD IN THE EARTHQUAKE OF 2010?

(If you are here for the first time, I suggest you scroll down and start reading at A Shaky Experience. The posts are short, and everything will make a lot more sense—I hope!)

It’s Sunday, and I get to talk about my favorite subject. I make no apologies and have no intention to smooth it over or slip it in sideways. So, stay with me.

Where was God in the midst of the Great Earthquake of 2010? I have no quick or eloquent answer, but I do have a direct and absolute one (yep, folks, I am willing to stick my neck out and say it is absolute): He was EVERYWHERE. Every minute.

I am a firm believer in Intelligent Design. Sometimes this position isn’t too popular but hey, I’ve never been particularly popular, so I’m okay with that. Starting with that premise, I hold  the earth was created and didn’t just happen. Any creator—painter, sculptor, whoever, has the final say as to what happens to his creation, whether he sells it (or contracts it), gives it away, or keeps it. God did the same. He decided to keep it and sustain it himself. Come on, did gravity just happen? But, I digress. This is not a treatise on Intelligent Design. But I warned you that I liked this subject. If you want to see something excellent on the theme, watch Ben Stein’s documentary, Expelled.

Suffice to say, God didn’t have his back turned, and the earthquake didn’t take him by surprise like it did us. Did he cause it or did he let it happen? At the end of the day, it is the same outcome, but we could talk about it on another occasion. The point is, the way the earth is designed, it is necessary to release energy. Which is what happened on a huge scale February 27 in Chile. And considering that the earthquake was about 15 years overdue, the magnitude is not terribly surprising. It could have been worse. That says a lot about God’s role right there.

And now NASA is saying the earth shifted on its axis. I wonder who or what is keeping it from falling off completely? You already know what I think.

What about the people who died? A painful tragedy for the loved ones left behind, without a doubt. This is the question that often plagues peoples’ minds. Like when the drunk driver runs over the little girl. God gets the blame for not saving her, when in fact it was the natural outcome of the little girl being there when the man who drank chose to drive when he shouldn’t have. The earth shook, doing the thing it had to do to release energy. Adobe wears out and crumbles. God didn’t make the contractor sign off on an edifice that wasn’t up to code, nor did he force people to construct their homes or businesses on the beach. Matter of fact, he talks about building on the sand. But that’s another story. Could God have saved all these peoples’ lives? Absolutely. Why didn’t he? It was the natural outcome of situations I already mentioned. My heart tells me that in some cases he didn’t intervene in order to protect them from worse anguish or pain in the future. Out of love or mercy, if you will. As strange as it may sound.

But perhaps God’s presence has been most evident in his supreme design—the human being. Like in the teenage girl who took it upon herself to warn the inhabitants of Juan Fernandez Island the tsunami was coming, when they didn’t have an alarm to do so? Or the man who was able to get out of the twelfth floor of a crumbling apartment building. Or the taxi driver who came out without a scratch when he was crossing the bridge over the Rio Claro and it plummeted, flipping his vehicle completely over. Or the young woman who sold her hair to help feed the hungry. Last night the special Relief Telethon here in Chile (think Jerry Lewis) had set a goal of $30 million dollars, asking for money from people who had been ravaged by tragedy. Did they make it? They doubled it.

No easy or pat answers are to be found. And no one knows the mind of God except God himself and what he chooses to reveal. But I know he is good. And just because I can’t wrap my finite mind around things that happen doesn’t change that one iota. He was and is everywhere, every minute.

Tomorrow I will return to my chronicle of events moments after the earthquake hit. Hope you will tune in.