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A Message From Pastor
Maridel - February 2010
The curtain goes up on
the stage and reveals
darkness; and in the middle of this darkness is a solitary circle of
light
thrown by a street lamp. An actor with a
long drawn worried face walks around in this light looking for
something. After a bit a policeman joins
him and asks,
“What have you lost?” “The
key to my
house.” Whereupon the policeman
joins
him in the circle of light going round and round looking for the lost
key to
his house. After a while he says,
“Are
you sure you lost it here?” He said,
“Oh
no, over there.” “Then why are
you
looking for it here?” “There
is no light
over there.”
In the days since the
devastating earthquake in Haiti
many of us are looking for God. We look
in the Bible, in churches, in worship services, in places where there
seems to
be some light. But maybe God’s not
to be
found in those places at all; maybe he’s found in the dark places
where we first
lost sight of him. God is in Haiti: in
some cases crushed beneath stones and in other cases removing the
stones from
those who are crushed. God is in Haiti:
in some cases moaning in pain with broken bones, and in other cases
setting
bones that have been broken. God is in
Haiti: hungry and thirsty, and in other cases dropping food and drink
from
helicopters and trucks.
Christian broadcaster,
Pat Robertson has said that
Haiti’s earthquake was “a blessing in disguise” and
that this earthquake was a
result of the country’s “pact with the devil.”
I have no idea how he might justify
those statements, and I really don’t
care! I believe with all my heart that
God does not cause evil. God is not a
vengeful and retributive being, waiting to strike us down; instead, God
is in
the very midst of this tragedy, suffering with those who are suffering. When evil strikes, it’s easy to ask,
where is
God? The answer is simple: God is
suffering with those who are suffering. Because
we are human we want to know why; because we are human we cannot know
why. The Scriptures promise that someday
we will
know why, but that day is not today.
What we need today is not an
explanation; what we need today is
faith.
Let us all keep the
people of Haiti in our prayers. And let us
all give what we can to help in
the relief efforts.
See, the home of God is
among mortals.
He will dwell with them; they will be
his peoples, and God himself will
be with them… (Revelation 21:3)
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