The "work of the heavens" wreaking havoc on Moore,
Oklahoma calls into question just how mindful God might be about mortals. But
then whenever humans suffer sudden destruction God’s providence is almost
always called into question. The ability to hold onto faith without minimizing
the reality of loss does not diminish the majestic name above all the earth.
Indeed, it is because the God who in the psalmist’s imagination created the
very winds that wiped away Moore, OK was himself swept away by death on a cross
that we can claim God knows our pain and shares our suffering. It could be that
you prefer a majestic name that remains above all the earth but I am going to
hold onto a God come down whose hands and feet are fastened to wood so that
mine are set free from trying to understand why things happen trusting that in the
end the Majestic name knows ours.
It’s ironic that the Psalmist sees that we are insignificant compared to God, and that out praise is infantile, yet concludes that we are merely a little less than God himself. We’ve been put in charge of Creation, and not just as remote and distant stewards as some would imply, but as fellow creators who are called upon not just to maintain but to leave a better world, and a better earth, than the one we were born into. Perhaps if we had done our part of it there wouldn’t be three “lifetime event” kind of tornadoes in a fifteen year period in exactly the same path through Moore, Oklahoma. God has given us rule over the works of His hands. Unlike Him, we readily mortgage the earth we inherited.
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