Hello,
For the past several days, the news has been full of the
tragic earthquake that has rumbled and ravaged Nepal. Pictures of the devastation and the tallying of the dead and
injured are gut wrenching. They
are a shocking reminder of the frailty of life and our compared weakness to the
might of the creation.
They also are a commentary upon those who find their primary
experience of God in nature.
Sunrises. Sunsets. Glorious vistas. Soaring peaks. Fields of spring flowers. “Don’t you just feel the presence
of God?” some say.
But what form does that presence take when earthquakes
crumble entire cities? Or when
tornados swirl their way through the plains and sweep up school buildings full
of children? Or when rain
disappears for years from fields and the only thing that those fields produce
is a crop of dust? “Where are you
God?”, or “Why God?” or “How can there be a God?”, naturally rumble across
people’s lips.
As a Christian, I do not deny the wonder and awesome beauty
of nature. It is a gift to behold. To behold the handiwork of God, it can
often take your breath away, and when that happens I find myself saying, “Thank
you, God.” Likewise, to find one’s
self in the hands of that handiwork can just as easily take your breath away
crushing life right out of you, and when that happens I find myself
saying, “Help me Lord!”
The reason that I cry out, “Help me Lord,” when the earth
shakes and crumbles around me, literally or figuratively, is because my primary
experience of God is not found in nature, but in the one who so embodied the
love of God that he took on my nature.
Jesus, fully human, experienced every thing that I naturally experience,
and fully divine Jesus took on in a battle to the death everything that nature,
including my sinful nature, might seek to take my breath away from me. When nature tries to get its hands on
me, I turn to the one who has taken me into his hands with a grip that will
never let me go. “Help me Lord.”
Some may say that this all sounds highly theoretical and
theological, but what good is it when real stuff happens? Well, all I can say is that because I
live the life that all of us live, real stuff does happen. I have felt the earth quiver and shake,
the walls of my life teetering, and my back growing wearing from trying to hold
up the roof…..and when it all finally comes tumbling down, I have not been
crushed….bruised, beaten up, and maybe broken a bit….but not crushed…held
together by the one who has his hold on me.
The people of Nepal need more than for us just to fold our
hands in prayer for them, although that is certainly something that we need to
do. But now that their world has
come tumbling down around them, we, the body of Christ, are here to stretch our
hands to them…lift them up, help them get back on their feet, walk hand in hand
with them into their uncertain future, embracing them with the love of God.
Likewise for you, if you find yourself in an earthquake
zone, know that you will get more than just our hands folded for you in prayer,
but we, the Body of Christ, will be the hands of Christ who will hold you and
never let you go.
Have a great week.
God’s grace and peace, (ggap)
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
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