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Thursday, September 08, 2005
God and Katrina
Come hell or high water....
That tired old phrase, covering the heights and depths of life's predictable ordeals, paraphrases one of my favorite Bible passages.
Isaiah 43:1-7 puts in God's mouth the words, "When you cross deep rivers, I will be with you, and you won't drown. When you walk through fire, you won't be burned or scorched by the flames."
Jews exiled in Babylonia knew the imagery by heart. Twice, the story went, their ancestors had crossed normally raging waters in dry sandals -- the Red Sea and the Jordan River. Besides that, more times than you could count, they'd traveled across burning deserts and lived to tell about it.
As we witness Hurricane Katrina's horrible aftermath, people of faith (and of no faith) wrestle with questions about where God (or goodness) has gone while destruction rules the day. Meanwhile, we watch and wait for the body count when the waters pull back to yield up their prey. In this case, far too many souls have been drowned.
So what shall we do with Isaiah's pious promises?
1. Accept their poetic nature, complete with dramatic overstatement. They encourage confidence that life's direst threats all fall short of God's supreme power. (The story of Daniel's three pals stepping out of the king's furnace without a blister [Daniel, chapter 3] does the same thing in prose.)
2. Don't absolutize the particulars. Floods rise, houses burn down, bridges collapse. And devout people die as a result. Then again, I skidded my way unscathed through a multiple-car collision on I-980 one morning when by all rights I should have been squozen somewhere amidst the wreckage. Go figure.
3. Cling to the heart of the promise. Where is God when bad things happen? Right there with you in the middle of it all! "I will be with you." Knowing what you're suffering, caring about you, sharing your pain, keeping pace step by step the whole way through it.
Not only so, but God gives you other people who will care about, and share in, your ordeal. That's manifestly going on right now for the millions who've been hit so hard by Katrina. Relief workers and supplies are arriving day and night. Havens of refuge have opened up across the country to welcome evacuees. Partnerships are being forged for long-term assistance in the rebuilding and resettling process.
These hellish high waters will not have the last word!
P.S. For up-to-the-minute information on what's happening since Katrina did her dirty work, log on to http://www.nola.com/.
posted by Jack Buckley at
10:46 AM
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