It's a question asked in one form or another after every natural disaster, or whenever some one we love is diagnosed with illness, or injured in an accident. It's not a question asked only by the athiest or the 'trouble maker' who sees an opportunity to debunk Christianity and God. Although 'they' do love the opportunity.
Unless I am really strange then Jesus' Followers like me ask the question too. How can God allow that much pain and suffering? Where is God? I have my own answers, but I do wonder:
If God is the 'creator, preserver and governor', if God is the architect of the weather, and the earth, then didn't God create the cyclone and the earthquake? Isn't God ultimately the cause of the chaos, the deaths, the injuries, the grief and pain? And if that's true then why?
The discussions at shool did not attempt to answer the huge question of why? But some of the things that were said included the opinion that God is in the gifts of money that are given, God is in the people that respond. God is experienced in the faith, hope and love that are evident in those that give water and an outstretched hand.
The school discussion may not have satisfied all questions, (but then academics haven't got the answers either), but the overwhelming response was that in the storms of life, God is there - often through friends, family, and even strangers who make themselves available to reach out to others.
