I have tried several times this week to write about the tragedy in Haiti, now finally I am able to pen some words of encouragement and hope. My prayer is that it will help us all get some perspective.

How would you feel if everything you relied on got stripped away from you in one horrific event?Suppose all the answers we thought we had to all the questions we thought people wanted answered, seemed hollow and empty, as tragedy on a scale we seldom see strikes at the heart of humanity. Abstract theories do not offer hope. Impersonal doctrines do not make things right. How do we answer when so many ask the question, “Where is God in the tragedy of Haiti?”

There are those who will trot out the ancient question, “If God is all powerful and all good, then why didn’t he prevent such a cataclysmic event?” Often this question tells us more about our immature understanding of both God and His creation, than it does about anything else. We must admit today that we do not know enough about God to pose that question and we do not know enough about the forces of nature to form an answer. The church must be so cautious to not cheapen the loss of life with easy answers.But there are some things we can know in the midst of events like this.

The first thing we know is that God did not cause this tragedy so as to punish humanity or give us all a wake up call. Sometimes we need to come to terms with the fact that stuff happens. But during these times we also know that God is very much at work in peoples’ lives giving hope.

• God is working globally through the compassion of ordinary people toward those in distress.
• God is working in the heroism of those who survived and who now act without regard to their own life to save the lives of others.
• God is working in the bravery of many men and women who have left the comfort of their own homes to travel to Haiti to support the relief work.
• God is working in the calm actions of the medical services who are working in un-sterile condition to save the lives of those brought to them.
• God is working in the actions of those who are fundraising to generate much needed financial support.
• God is working in the hugs and tears, and expressions of grief and sympathy that have flowed from around the world.
• God is working in each act of love and thoughtfulness and kindness

How can I be sure of this? The Bible declares Jesus to be the image of the invisible God; He was the exact representation of God’s nature. Jesus saw tragedy – sickness, blindness, lameness, the darkness of demon-possession, hopelessness, despair, hunger, and grief, He was moved over and over again to end the suffering and relieve the pain of those whose lives he encountered.

Jesus wept over Jerusalem when it would not respond to God’s love, and cried in grief when his friend Lazarus died.Even while knowing that he would bring Lazarus back from the tomb, Jesus was still moved to tears.

Jesus in his own suffering on the cross saw his mother’s pain and asked John to care for her from that time on.Jesus is moved by our fear, our grief, our pain, our loss, our suffering because he too has suffered.And he weeps with us when we weep. Today he is present among those who call on His name.Healing,encouraging, guiding, providing.

Where is God in this tragedy? Where he has always been.Among his people, moved by human tragedy, giving hope.

Eli Wiesel, holocaust survivor, author, and Nobel Peace prize laureate, tells this story in his book, Memoirs: All Rivers Run to the Sea:

“When God sees the suffering of his children scattered among the nations, He sheds two tears in the ocean. When they fall, they make a noise so loud it is heard round the world.”

In this event God’s compassion has mobilised the world to intervene.