Weep Now

Thousands upon thousands are dead following the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Thousands more will die from related injuries, disease or radiation poisoning. Watching the video images of walls of mud and debris sweep entire communities from their foundations made my soul shiver. Pardon a Star Wars analogy, but I remember the reaction of Obiwan Kenobi when the Imperial Death Star destroyed the planet Alderaan. He said he felt a disturbance in the Force as if thousands of lives had been ended. I felt like that.

I wonder if God felt like that. Many thousands of his creatures lived in a town called Minami Sanriku in northern Japan. The tsunami bowled through the streets taking everything with it as it swept through town and headed inland. Large tracts of homes where children once did their homework and mothers cooked supper have given way to a newly formed ocean inlet. Dinner has been postponed; homework will not be handed in.

I wonder if God weeps over things like that. My theology tells me that tragedy like this is not what God originally had planned. I believe the doctrine that says humanity is doomed because our first parents made a choice to disregard their Maker’s instructions and to forge their own way in the world. I believe this act of human independence had cosmic consequences. To this day we reap the whirlwind sown in Eden’s soft breeze.

I wonder if God has I-told-you-so in His vocabulary. He did warn us that things would get ugly if His rules were not obeyed. Yet we still build small cities in coastal regions prone to earthquakes and tsunamis. We plant large cities in river deltas below sea level where hurricanes frequently blow. We build in flood plains all along the Mississippi River. Then we act surprised and blame God when stuff happens.

Or we turn our backs on Him by tossing the Bible and prayer out of schools and filling our kid’s heads with “value free” education then watch in dismay as the crime rate, teen pregnancy rate, and the divorce rate all climb like bottle rockets. We criminalize corporal punishment at home and at school then complain because there is no controlling our young people. We turn a blind eye to a politician’s private moral failures then act surprised when his public practices and policies turn out to be equally shady.

I despise the actions of people who would seek to gain by other’s tragedy; I remember Rahm Emanuel’s admonition not to waste a good crisis. Still I would like to take to my soapbox and make some use of the mood sensitive people acquire during tragic aftermaths. This is a good time to remind our neighbors that there is sound theology in the bumper sticker that says, “Sh** Happens.” We live in a fallen world. It is not just people who bear the consequences of sin; all of creation groans under its effects. Weep with those who weep for Minami Sanriku. Then tell them that a day of no more tears is coming. Share the hope.