Where was God when the bombs went off?

This has been a week with terrible images of the Boston Marathon bombing seared into our minds.  Three were killed in the bombing, many were injured and now more have died as the suspects robbed a store, killed a cop and wounded another.  One of the 'bad guys' is dead also.  It's a tragedy beyond the comprehension of most people... and we ask "why would they do this"?  The question will also be asked as to how a loving God (that we Christians proclaim) could ever allow such a thing to happen.

Some people think God causes bad things like this to teach people lessons or maybe to punish but nothing could be farther from the truth.  When we were created, God gave us free will, the ability to choose and our lives are made up of millions of choices over a typical lifetime.  God didn't create us to automatically swear allegiance to Him, He gave us a choice to follow Him or do our own thing. 

Think of it this way;  if a robot created by God loves Him in return because it's programmed to, it isn't love, it's just programming... similar to what you see in cults where all the followers love the leader because there's no other choice allowed.  But God took the risk to allow us to choose (to love Him back) but when the choice is hateful or self-centered, evil is the result.  When evil things like the bombing in Boston happen, God isn't absent or uninterested.  You will find Him to be just where each of us has chosen to put Him.  For me, I had a sense of His pain over the suffering of the victims but I also believe He was cheering on the rescuers who could have run to safety but ran to help the victims, not knowing if another bomb would go off.  God (the Spirit) was there, working through the physical bodies of anyone who would respond to do good.  When you saw the rescuers wheeling badly injured victims in wheelchairs away from the scene, you saw God at work.  He will be there for every suffering victim who turns to Him in their recovery.

Good will triumph over evil.

Peace

Spring???

We've had some beautiful, warm spring days and last weekend I resisted the urge to plant all my little wildflower seeds over in the Shed garden and all my little seeds are thanking me... a lot!  The warm sun is gone, the rain is back along with wind and you'd think it was November in Western Washington, not early April.  Had I planted the seeds, they'd be soggy and cold so I'm glad I decided to wait a bit longer. 

Funny thing about seeds.  Until the last few years, I hadn't really noticed how much is said about seeds in the Bible but it's a really common theme.  The bad weather this week reminded me about the teaching of Jesus about seeds, soil, rocks and brambles (which I can also relate to, we have big, wild blackberry vines all over) and I'm going to apply his wisdom and wait for the ground to improve before sticking all those little seeds into it.  My husband has already taken the stones out, pulled the weeds and prepared the soil... we just need sun to warm the ground.  The ground is ready but am I correct in applying his teaching to such a 'natural' thing as waiting to plant my seeds?

Now, it may seem to some that when Jesus taught about sowing seeds, he was making a point about 'spiritual' aspects of our lives rather than the physical, natural or as some say, the 'real' world but Jesus didn't separate the two like we do.  Modern folks have tried for over two hundred years since the Enlightenment Movement to separate the spiritual from the physical and as I look around the western world where these teaching dominated, I'd say it hasn't worked.  It's time to live in the oneness of the Spirit and the natural.  As designed.

My rock garden, waiting for warmer days... only rocks seem to increase in this weather.