A number of years ago some teenagers from a local school were killed in a tramping tragedy.  Heavy rains had fallen and the swollen river had washed them away. Some cried out to Jesus and were saved but others died. Presumably, they were praying too, wanting to be rescued, but they weren’t.  The parents gathered around and wondered why some children were saved and others were lost. Outside the theologians defended the sovereignty of God and consoled themselves with the mystery of Gods plan for the accident.  Others may have looked at the tragedy and thought that God is either powerless or if he is powerful maybe not as loving, as we hoped.

We know from scripture and reason that God is loving and powerful but we have to admit, there are mysteries when it comes to tragedies in people’s lives. God is not the only player in the events of the world. Satan does all he can to destroy people, the selfish will of man can do monstrous evil and human beings have insufficient wisdom or foreknowledge to escape every natural danger.

A man called Helmet Thielecke said “When you look through a magnifying class at some cloth, the fabric is sharply in focus in the centre and blurred at the edges. We know edges will be fine because we have seen the centre.  Life is like that too. There are many edges that are blurred but because we have seen the centre, the cross, that greatest demonstration of God’s love, we can accept that the edges we don’t understand, will be woven by Gods love too.” When the King is still in focus, the game is not lost.

Friends, we can trust Gods character, when we can’t understand our circumstances.