Prayers for the World

"The Israelites came to know God through his Word. In this case Moses brought it, and he brought it right into the middle of Israel's trouble.

That's so often where God speaks. IN trouble. God's Word addresses us when we are trapped in one way or another." (Cornelius Plantinga, Jr. Beyond Doubt)

I've been struggling with the news of the earthquake in Japan. When I first began to hear the news, it seemed as though the death toll was surprisingly low, in the double digits, even. Not that the loss of a single human life is not heartbreaking, but I was shocked at how low the numbers were.

No more.

Now I hear reports of up to ten thousand perished due to tsunamis and earthquakes. I cannot begin to imagine the heartbreak as the earth opens once more to receive those it has claimed by its quaking. I cannot begin to imagine the mourning cries of those who cannot even find beloved ones to entomb.

I wonder why, but I have been over that question so many times, and the answers are so unsatisfactory, like eating nothing but chicken broth in fine restaurants--it fills a need, but leaves me strangely empty inside. I know that evil runs amok, that life is fragile, that disasters happen and people perish and that God abides in the midst of the disasters of life, and yet I want more.

I long for the Light of Christ to shine so powerfully in painful times that we do not doubt that God is there, that my fears are overwhelmed by the awe-inspiring healing touch of God. I long to have God show up on the scene is such ways that none doubt that God is still God, even in the midst of disaster.

I must remind myself that I worship a God who went meekly to the cross, whose resurrection happened in a garden early on the first day of the week, when there were few, if any, witnesses around. God does not depend on my observation to be at work. He does not need my affirmation to work wonders in broken human hearts.

God has promised that nothing shall separate us from the love of God. God has promised to send the Holy Spirit, and I trust that the Spirit is at work, pointing to the light of Christ, pointing to God's sacrificial love, the love that knows death, that knows mourning, the love that knows pain. Throughout the Gospels, God spent time with the broken hearted, with the pained and the grieving. Only God can restore hope in such times, and so that's where God was.

God will be God, and God will be present, active, working. The church must do its part, through Presbyterian Disaster Assistance and other organizations, that will be Christ's hands and feet in action, on the ground. But God will always point to hope in Christ, even in the darkest of nights, even when I fail to look for that light.

I will continue to pray, continue to hope, for the people and nation of Japan.

Will you join me?