I remember waking up years ago on a Sunday morning to the news that Indonesia had experienced a Tsunami. Back then I don’t think many people knew what a Tsunami was. But within days, that word was all over the news. When everything had settled, it was determined that over 230,000 people had lost their lives. It would be next to impossible for me personally to list all of the events that we might classify as natural disasters that have taken place since then. However as we look back, we see a number of major ones. We experienced Hurricane Katrina in 2005 which devastated New Orleans, taking more than 1000 lives and costing over 100 billion dollars. Then there was Hurricane Sandy which hit the mid-Atlantic states including New York, and took over 200 lives and cost almost 70 billion dollars in damage. Those are just well-known examples of the many natural disasters that have taken place over the past 15-20 years.
Over the past few weeks, here in Ontario we have experienced a great deal of rain. That coupled with the spring thaw has resulted in huge amounts of water with no place to go. All of this has come together to create a natural disaster. As I write this article there are currently at least ten communities that have declared a state of emergency due to flooding, Ottawa being the largest. This is just in the province of Ontario.
It seems that with each of these major events, and now with the flooding in various parts of Ontario, that people are asking the question – why? Many people would like to know what role God has in all of this.
I first would like to clear something up. In the past, when natural disasters have hit a region, there have been well intentioned men and women who have proclaimed that the disaster is God’s judgment for sin on those people who are at that point suffering. While I would agree that in the past God has used natural disasters as well as all kinds of other means to show his displeasure, I would say quite strongly that without God having clearly verified His role in the event, it is irresponsible and presumptuous to speak on His behalf like that.
We are much better off to understand two things. The first of which is that since the beginning of time, the earth has been under a curse. As the Biblical account goes, Adam and Eve were created by God and blessed with the opportunity to live in the garden of Eden. Everything was good, and they enjoyed living in close relationship with God. But Adam and Eve sinned. They chose to act in a way that was contrary to the will of God. The result of that sin has been a distortion of all that was good. What was good is not good any longer. Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden and forced to work hard to survive. One of the consequences of this sin was that the ground was cursed, the very earth that we live on was corrupted. Since then, the consequences have rippled through history and things are progressively getting worse and worse. The Bible tells us that the whole earth is “groaning” as it awaits God’s final revealing of His people (Romans 8:19-22).
Understanding this first fact, that the earth is under a curse, brings into perspective these natural disasters that are taking place. But we still need the second piece. This second important fact to understand is that some of what we are experiencing is a consequence of our own bad judgment. When God made this world, he put humanity in charge. He delegated us to be “stewards” of this planet. In fact the language used was that of “subduing” the earth and “ruling over it” (Genesis 1:26). Sadly we don’t always do a good job of this.
It is one thing to understand that these natural disasters are occurring as a consequence of man’s original sin, and that Man has not been a great steward of the earth. It is another thing to do something about it. We as Christians of all people should be out there trying to help those in need when natural disasters strike. I don’t think it is a coincidence that the founder of the Red Cross Society was a Christian. The underlying mindset of the Christian faith is that of valuing every human life. Not only do we value human life, but we are taught to reach out to others and to love them as ourselves, to put the needs of others before our own. In fact it was this very attitude that was exemplified in Jesus. He valued us more than he did His own life. So when natural disasters strike, we shouldn’t be surprised, but really should focus more on answering the question – how can we help.