Why is it?

So often times in tragedy we as Christians are faced with the question of why does a loving, all powerful God allow such senseless hostility to innocent people as occurred at Virginia Tech? We really as humans will never really understand the whole concept of how this works and for those of us that see Jesus when we get to heaven perhaps it is something we may ask Him. But keep in mind that in heaven there will be no sorrow, no pain, so we may never know this part of humanity. I would like to offer some suggestions that may help in the understanding process for you. I am not saying they will make it go away but they may help us understand how this happens and God is still on the throne. You see, it is the unfathomable love of God that allow each and everyone one of us the freedom to make our own choices. As we were created in His image ( Genesis 1:26), he included in that image the ability to make our own decisions without God intercepting them even though He may know the outcome of such a decision. Think about how much power God must have to initiate on His own accord not to interfere when He knows such devastation is about to occur. The "All Powerful" God must exercise that very power on His own self, especially in instances such as Virginia Tech, September 11, or Columbine. These are horrific events in our history and very painful, so let my try to pull it down to scale for us in a simpler way. My son when he was 3 years old was playing around the swimming pool at my house one day. It was a big pool and definitely over his head. The rule was if he ever got into the pool he had to wear his arm flotation devices. This day he stood at the top of the deck ladder, then onto the deck eyeing me to see if I had noticed him at the pool without his flotations devices on his arms. As I continued to cut the grass I yelled over to him to get down and get his flotation devices on, or floaties as we called them. He gave me that mischievous smile of his and at that point I knew the floaties were not in his plan. It took all I had to keep from stopping my grass cutting and going over to him and pulling him down to put his floaties on, but I knew he had to learn. Sure enough he jumped in and went straight to the bottom. I ran to the pool and dove in and grabbed him up out of the water to hear him attempting to whimper through his deepest of gasps for air. After he had calmed I explained to him that that is why we don´t enter the pool or even walk around it without flotation devices. He never did it again. See sometimes God wants so badly to stop the atrocity, but knows He promised not to interfere. Then after the catastrophic moment God jumps in to the thick of it to offer healing and understanding to those affected by such an event, just like I dove in to save my little boy. God wants to be your comforter, and while the act of violence committed against you may be more than you can bear Jesus tells us in Matthew 11:28-30, that all of us who are hurting need to come to Him. He invites us to come to Him so He can offer us comfort and take our burdens on Himself. If you don´t understand you can go to Him and scream and holler if need be, He understands, He just wants to love you and comfort you. We may never understand these atrocities at all, but we can be sure of a few things for certain. 1) God didn't do it, but He dives right in to try and save us from the pain. (2) In all atrocities we see the true nature of sin, and (3) Jesus invites us to give our hurts to Him, and promises to give us rest. God Blessings to All