Natural disasters are always difficult to understand. Insurance companies refer to them as "acts of God", but can we really blame a loving God for the terrible things that happen, seemingly at random?
The LA forest fires have been particularly disturbing for me. The daughter and son-n law of close friends of ours, recently married with a new baby, tragically lost their beautiful home in the fires. As I looked at the photo of what remains (a stone chimney), my heart broke for them. How does one make sense of such horror? People have lost homes, entire communities and everything that is familiar. They can be thankful to be alive, yes, but how do they answer the question, "why me God?" How do they rebuild and recover from such loss?
I took my well-worn copy of When Bad Things Happen to Good People, by Harold Kushner, off of my bookshelf and re-read most of it yesterday to try to understand.
Rabbi Kushner points out that, while many people believe in a God who rewards the good and punishes the evil, this is really not how the world works. This kind of thinking has led many to hate God and abandon religion. The truth is, devastating hurricanes, wildfires or earthquakes are natural disasters that occur for a number of explainable reasons. They occur more frequently now because humans have disrupted the laws of nature and caused climate change to escalate.
He goes on to state: "Laws of nature do not make exceptions for nice people...No matter what stories we were taught about Daniel or Jonah in Sunday School, God does not reach down to interrupt the workings of laws of nature to protect the righteous from harm. And really, how could we live in this world if he did?" Random, bad things happen all the time, whether due to natural causes or the free will of human beings. A drunk driver kills a loving, faith-filled family; a lone gunman opens fire and shoots into a crowd, indiscriminately murdering people with no regard for who is "good" or "bad"; young; innocent children are diagnosed with terrible diseases. If we truly believe in a God who loves us all, how could we justify him saving some, but not others?
While we cannot understand the chaos of the world and, no matter how fervently we pray. we cannot escape misfortune in our lives, we can be assured that God works through those who help us in times of need. When we are weak, we can pray for help and be blessed with angels of mercy, who do God's work in the world. Through prayer, we are given the strength to go on and we are filled with the peace that passes understanding. Miraculous healing does happen, because he has given us the power to be His hands in the world.
We may be facing difficult times, with climate change accelerating and the world as we know it changing so quickly. This is not the time to judge others or blame God. It is a time to reach out to others with compassion and to pray for strength and peace. He/She will be with us in the midst of it, lifting us up.
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