new church life : march / april 2017
what god sees
In the wake of personal tragedy – or just what we might call misfortune or bad luck – the question of God ’ s will and presence can be relevant and intense .
Thornton Wilder famously probed the question in his classic book , The Bridge of San Luis Rey , in which five people plunge to their deaths when a rope bridge collapses in 18 th century Peru .
Wilder asks how we are to make sense of such seemingly random victims . Is it just bad luck ? Or somehow God ’ s will ? Is God sometimes powerless in such situations ? Are we all predestined to our fate ? Is there a Divine plan for each of our lives , or is it all just random events and consequences ?
Wilder never really answered the questions satisfactorily in this story but did a better job in a book he wrote 40 years later , The Eighth Day . This is about another innocent victim , a good and decent man whose life is ruined by bad luck . Here Wilder helps us understand with the image of a tapestry that shows a tangle of threads and knots on one side , but a work of art on the other .
The art , he suggests , is what God sees – and helps to explain why good people may suffer in this life . Some lives may appear twisted , knotted , cut short . From our limited vantage point this is what we see – just the random tangle of knots and threads . But God sees the spiritual continuum of our lives – the other side of the tapestry where all those knots and threads can help to produce a work of art in heaven .
We all have that tapestry within us . So do all the people we see as victims of tragedy or “ bad luck .” It ’ s all in the hand that is guiding the needle .
( BMH ) the call to angels
One of our comforting teachings about death – whether sudden and unexpected , the result of disease or suicide , or the natural result of old age – is that the person awakening in the spiritual world is immediately cared for by angels . He or she still must deal with issues unresolved in this world , but within the embrace of those loving angels . We may wonder though : where are the angels for those who have been left behind and are hurting ? And where is God – especially in the midst of tragedy ?
But God is there in all the love and kindness shown – by family , by friends , by community , even by strangers .
We saw it after the 9 / 11 tragedy , when the spontaneous eruption of love all over the world quickly overwhelmed the evil of the terrorism . We see it in response to any tragedy , whether it affects great numbers or just one family . We see it in the cakes and casseroles that suddenly appear , in all the smiles and hugs and tears , in all the sincere hands trying to lift the grieving – just like the angels do .
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