"Boise Mom, I Guess God Needed Him Back." Those were the headlines on the front page of Sunday's paper. What followed was an extremely tragic story of a three year old developmentally delayed toddler who was quick on his feet, fascinated with doors, and bright lights. All three attributes contributed to him opening an unlocked door in the morning twilight, racing towards a busy street and tragically darting into the path of an unsuspecting car.
The police ruled the toddler's death an accident. The emotional damage to his mom and the driver of the car is immeasurable. I often tell people at the time of death that we get through it, but we never get over it. Acceptance of death, is a season of living with the loss without it continually destroying us.
In the mean time coping with the loss is extremely tough and sometimes so tough we that seek to console ourselves with some type of God reference. People may try to comfort us by saying something about God's purpose or plan in the tragedy. They may quote Romans 8:28,"That all things work together for the good for those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose," or as the Boise Mom said, "I guess God needed him back."
That a young child whose life tragically taken by an automobile, may be spending eternity with a loving God, is a comforting. The eternal destiny question is huge at times like these and it is equally important to stress the love and mercy and grace of God over some concept of sin judgment.
However I find little or no comfort in the thought that "God needed him back." My first response to that line is "For What?" What purpose or divine activity of God could not be completed without the presence of this toddler's soul? To even think that God orchestrated this tragic accident in order to gain the resources of this child, would make me want to have nothing to do with God. If the resources of this child were truly needed, if I were God I think I could have found a better way to tap them than this. I am also bothered by the concept of a needy God, but that may be the subject of another blog.
I also know during times like these that the assumption is that God should have done something. God should have intervened, but God stood by motionless, and let the convergence of a toddler's tendencies, the morning's twilight light, and a commuter going the speed limit take place. An angelic hand restraining the child till his frantic mother arrived, or a little bit faster response time with the driver swerving a split second faster, would have done it. Why didn't God do something rather than nothing? Divine interventions are extremely rare. Since we come across them in the Bible we almost assume they are to be expected. The cross still stands as the supreme symbol of God's non-intervention, a fact acknowledged by the one hung on it when he said," My God my God what have You forsaken me?"
If Jesus could still find enough strength to commend his spirit into the hands of a non-intervening God at his moment death, and given the fact that Jesus had every reason to abandon the God he felt had abandoned him but didn't, is comforting. To also know that God the Father also witnessed the convergence of forces which lead to the death of His Son is also comforting. In Jesus God both knew what it was like to be innocent and suffer under the forces of this world, and what it is like to stand and watch the innocent suffer. I too find that comforting. We may never know why God doesn't intervene more to relieve the suffering and death of innocents. We do know that it did not diminish the trust Jesus had in this God.
God did resurrect the life of Jesus,and the good news for us is that God can resurrect our life too after a tragedy. It may take longer than three days, but we can trust God to give us life back again as well.
