Why?

As I sat at the funeral for an eight year old little boy named Nicholas and his grandparents, Robert Lee Shumake, 68, and Wilene Shumake, 67, the pastor of the missionary baptist church that the entire Shumake family attended was talking about the question we all have thought at some point throughout this tragedy....Why?


The pastor said that he had always told people and heard others make the same comment to him over the years that when they got to Heaven they had a list of questions they would ask God as soon as they got there.  The top of the list centers around one word...why?  Why does a loving God who wants what is best for us allow such tragedy?  Why did God allow a flash flood to take 20 precious family members in a matter of a few minutes and leave these families devastated.  Why did God allow the flood to take little Nic, who was adopted as an infant into a loving, Christian family who treasured him and was the church "prankster" who everyone loved, and Wilene who was a Godly woman that others in the church turned to when any need arose, and Robert who was a deacon and considered a pastor's friend.


Then he went on to say that he always thought that as soon as he came before Christ he would ask Him why these things happen, but while preparing and studying what he wanted to say over these 3 family members, he said God impressed upon his heart that when he saw God's face he would not say, "Why?" but instead would say, "Of course." That when we get to Heaven and see God's face, it will all make sense in an instant.  We will instantly understand that we only saw a snapshot of the plan.  That God's time is not our time.  We can't even wrap our minds around the "big picture" so to speak.  As Isaiah 55:8 says, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my way," declares the Lord.  


I don't know why tragedies happen.  I don't think we will understand it while we are here on earth.  I do trust that the God I believe in, the God I pray to, the God I worship...He is in control.  


As my pastor said one Sunday morning and it is a comfort to me when things aren't going the way I want them to....NOTHING will ever touch my life that has not gone through God's hands first.  Nothing will touch me that hasn't sifted through his fingers.  God can take the worst disaster and make it into the biggest blessing.  Does it make everything rosy and perfect when it's falling apart?  Of course not, but God is still on the throne and that is ultimately all I need to know.