new church life: jan uary/february 2016
“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In
the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the
world.” (John 16:33)
(WEO)
where was god in paris?
When innocent people are wantonly killed – in the terrorist attacks in Paris
in mid-November, the blowing up of a Russian airliner over Egypt’s Sinai
Peninsula, and the shootings in San Bernardino, California, in early December
– tests of faith are immediate and insistent. Where was God? Why does He
allow such horrors to happen?
We are blessed to know from the Writings that evil is permitted by God
for the sake of our freedom and that nothing is permitted that cannot be bent
toward good. But amid the shock and mourning of the grisly aftermath it is
understandable that even religious people can wonder about God’s love and
presence with us.
In the wake of a devastating earthquake in Lisbon in 1755, the famous
French writer and philosopher Voltaire wrote his withering satirical novel,
Candide, mocking those who found comfort in God. He looked for God amid
the chaos and found Him wanting. But God’s love and providence began
leading to good outcomes all over Europe. That’s where God was and is – not
in the tragedy but in the response to it. We see it all the time – if we look for it.
Today it is still encouraging to witness the instincts of the grieving: offering
comfort and kindness, praying and going to churches, lighting candles and
creating memorials of flowers. People turn to God and find that even when the
pain is raw and spirits are broken, He is there, already bending hearts toward
good.
We often hear relatives of those who have died suddenly who instinctively
are comforted by the confident faith that they are “with God in heaven.” The
father of a young woman who died tragically with her husband in 1996 when
their plane blew up after takeoff from New York – on a dream trip to Paris –
said among his tears: “We wake up to a sunrise, but they wake up to a sunrise
many times more glorious. We know where they are and we will see them
again.”
We have the comforting assurance in the Writings that: “When we suffer
physically, our soul does not suffer, it merely feels distress. After victory
God relieves that distress and washes it away like tears from our eyes.” (True
Christian Religion 126) We also are told that when people die violently they
awaken in the spiritual world to a sphere of absolute love and peace, with no
memory of fear, suffering, violence, pain or terror.
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