Thoughts on the Humboldt Broncos Bus Crash.

  I have been following the Humboldt bus crash with empathy and a great sense of loss. When I first heard about the crash it didn’t affect me too much, but as the details and stories started to emerge, as faces and names were announced, the significance of what had happened started to sink in. 14 out of 28 dead, and the rest all in the hospital. Some in critical condition, some paralyzed, reality and horror set in. 

Then comes the comprehension of the vast number of people this tragedy has affected. Every parent who has ever lost a child. Every parent who has ever seen off a child on a bus. Everyone who has ever tried to make sense of a senseless tragedy.

 As the funerals rack up, the idea of ‘not fair’ and the question of ‘Why?’ looms large. If God in Heaven is a caring and loving God, why didn’t He intervene? 

 The question that countervails in my mind is: Did we want Him to? What kind of a question is that, you may ask? Of course we want God to intervene, to prevent bad and horrible stuff from happening. But at what level? 

 Do we want Him to intervene at loss of life and limb? Yes, we do. Do we want Him to intervene at health and well being? Yes, we do. Do we want Him to intervene at injury and happenstance? Well, maybe or maybe not. Do we want Him to intervene on our bad but deliberate decisions? I think this time most of us would agree that we wouldn’t. We are our own man and want the freedom to say what we want, and do what we want, and no one better stand in our way. That is our right! How else can our lives have meaning?

  These are valid points, but we can’t have it both ways. We can’t demand that God intervene and then demand He shouldn’t. We love the freedom of free will and charting our own course, but when tragedy strikes we demand interference. We  love the promise of God walking with us through the valley of the shadow of death, but balk at the thought of walking with Him every day. In essence, we really don't know what we want, and we for sure don't know what's best for us. How can the creation argue with the Creator?

“Be still and know that I am God.”

Psalm 46:10.

Where are the miracles of Jesus today?

And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to Him, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?”

Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.

 Matthew 11:4-5

Reading these accounts of Jesus makes us wish He was amongst us today. There are so many he could heal! And so many ailments; cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, the list goes on and affects us all.

But there’s one thing we can take comfort in, and that is that Jesus sees and knows the afflictions and burdens we bear and carry. If our prayers for healing don’t get answered right away maybe it’s because of the possibility that our earthly instances, sufferings, and struggles will serve to soften our hardened, wayward hearts to His message of hope and glory.

 But maybe Jesus is working miracles today. Miracles far greater than the healing of our bodily sicknesses. Maybe he’s healing our spiritual ailments, by making the blind in faith to see, the crippled in sin to walk, the deaf to His Word to hear, and the dead in spirit to live. Maybe he’s performing miracles that will make us whole not only for a few years or decades, but throughout eternity.

For even if we would get a temporal reprieve from our earthly sicknesses, there is still old age to contend with. And there’s no getting away from that. It’s only the fact that Jesus conquered the grave that we have hope. Only that truth can make the sting of death be swallowed up in victory.

Viewed from that angle, we have no argument with the shaper of the clay and the firing kilns that we walk through. They can serve to turn us into the worthy vessels that God desires us to be and oh, what a miracle that would be!

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. ~Paul in Romans 8:18

Am Ölberg Weiß Ich Eine Stätte.

I know a place near Mount of Olives,

Secluded from the rushing world,

The Kidron murmurs in the valley,

The olive trees stretch out their boughs.

There you see naught of manmade clamour

But rolling hills, forest and sea,

And all around this quiet courtyard,

The garden of Gethsemane.

There lay the Holy One in prayer,

In dark of night upon His knees,

The promised child of faithful fathers,

Cried out to God despairingly.

A heart so full of fear and pleading

An anguished and forsaken soul.

And from His sacred, stricken forehead

Flowed heavy drops of crimson blood.

O Lord, you worked on my salvation

You feared for me in dark of night,

Alone, removed from all creation

You cared and prayed with all your might.

My thoughts are always near that courtyard

No matter where I go or stay’

I close my eyes and see the garden

That harboured God, Gethsemane.