Thought for Today
Job 30:22 You lift me up on the wind, you make me ride on it, and you toss me about in the roar of the storm.
Psalm 107:28 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out from their distress; 29 he made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed.
Mark 6:48 When he saw that they were straining at the oars against an adverse wind, he came towards them early in the morning, walking on the sea. He intended to pass them by. 49 But when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out;
Acts 27:18 We were being pounded by the storm so violently that on the next day they began to throw the cargo overboard,
Hurricane Milton is poised to come ashore along the middle western coast of Florida. Milton has been a category 5 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico and is projected to come ashore soon as a category 4 hurricane. Today’s television news is full of stories about Milton, replete with pictures of gridlocked Interstate Highways and reports of gasoline shortages along those roadways. The projected path of this massive storm indicates it will ravage the entirety of the mid-Florida coast from the Gulf to the Atlantic. Sadly, many communities throughout that region are still recovering from the previous hurricane, Helene, less than 2 weeks ago.
Hurricanes, like tornados, are examples of the awesome power of nature. A category 5 hurricane has sustained winds above 157 miles per hour! A (mere?) category 4 has winds from 130-156 mph. Greta and I have been through category 3 hurricanes with winds of only (?) 111-129 mph. The destructive power of even minor (categories 1-2) hurricanes is unimaginable. Much of the debris from Helene, a category 4 at landfall, is still on the ground and may pose a serious threat as Milton comes ashore.
For some Christians, hurricane season each year raises a most troubling question, “Why did God design Creation this way?” The same must be true for those living in regions which experience other natural disasters, earthquakes, cyclones, tornados, mudslides, fires sparked by lightning and so on. Why did our loving, Creator God set in place a system including such horrendous events? Events generating untold suffering and misery for so many of God’s children. Why?
The Bible does not offer us any information on meteorology, geology or any other of the physical sciences. The Bible offers us information on theology, literally ‘words about God.’ Those verses above do tell us that natural disasters have been around ever since the creation of Creation. Maybe those first 3 chapters of Genesis are meant to tell us that our ancestors-in-the-faith understood that originally Creation was all “good,” but that somehow mankind’s disobedience in eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil introduced all the ‘bad’ we see in Creation today.
Maybe they were right. I suspect that there is much more to it than that. But, either way, that offers scant consolation to all of those Christians and all of the others currently gridlocked on interstates or boarding up the windows on their houses. It offers nothing for those watching approaching forest fires. It offers nothing for any of us dealing with the world around us every day.
I do not have an easy, clearly understandable explanation for the ‘why’ of natural disasters. I do have some modicum of self-confidence, but even I will not claim to understand the mind of God. As an engineer, when I contemplate the complexities of the physical universe, I stand in absolute, total awe of our Creator God. As a minister, when I contemplate that same universe, I recall the words of the psalmist, “8:3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; 4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? 5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.”
When I think about those fleeing natural disasters, when I think about those who have lost or may soon lose everything in those natural disasters, I can only offer up prayers to our Creator God for their safety and support. And, I can offer assistance toward their recovery to the extent I am able. I believe God loves God’s children and God’s creation. I trust God. That is enough for me.
Stay safe, pray hard and often, trust God,
Pastor Ray