29 October 2012

Natural Disasters as "Acts of God"

I have been glued to the Weather Channel this evening watching the news of the monster storm named Sandy.
       It has been especially unnerving to me because my immediate family lives in New York City, on Long Island, and in Washington D.C. All locations have been in the bull's eye of this storm.
       As I was watching the Weather Channel one of the commentators said, "these acts of God are nothing less than spectacular."
       I have always felt a bit "miffed" by blaming God for natural disasters such as Hurricane Sandy. It really can mess with one's understanding of God as a loving and merciful God.
      But the more I consider it, the more I have to live with very very "good" as well as the very very "bad" with God. If God is God at all, only He can create something so powerful, awesome, and awful as a tornado or spectacular lightning. If God is the all-powerful, all-knowing, the "alpha and omega" it seems to me that I cannot pick and choose when and how He can be all-powerful.
       The words of God to Job are ringing in my ears from Job 38:

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:
“Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
Dress for action like a man;
    I will question you, and you make it known to me.
“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
    Tell me, if you have understanding.
Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
    Or who stretched the line upon it?
On what were its bases sunk,
    or who laid its cornerstone,
when the morning stars sang together
    and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
“Or who shut in the sea with doors
    when it burst out from the womb,
when I made clouds its garment
    and thick darkness its swaddling band,
10 and prescribed limits for it
    and set bars and doors,
11 and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther,
    and here shall your proud waves be stayed’?
12 “Have you commanded the morning since your days began,
    and caused the dawn to know its place,
13 that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth,
    and the wicked be shaken out of it?
14 It is changed like clay under the seal,
    and its features stand out like a garment.
15 From the wicked their light is withheld,
    and their uplifted arm is broken.
16 “Have you entered into the springs of the sea,
    or walked in the recesses of the deep?
17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you,
    or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?
18 Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth?
    Declare, if you know all this.

No comments:

Post a Comment