This is a picture of what was a bridge to a neighboring suburb just a few days ago before the unimaginable happened. With my wife and three young children I drove across that bridge the day before this photo was taken. The world awoke that day to the horrific images of a violent deluge resulting from a deadly combination of a land soaked to capacity from many weeks of rain and a series of freak storms delivering masses of water over a wide area.
The Queensland Europe - this is a flood on an unprecedented scale. The torrent caused widespread devastation well beyond the borders of Queensland across four of Australia ’s six states, bringing the city of Brisbane
For many hundreds of thousands of people this disaster has cast a deep shadow over their lives. We watched helplessly as the silent unstoppable killer rose up and devoured everything in sight, witnessing this devastation first-hand. We were cut off from access to the outside world with no power and dwindling food stocks, and had no access to vital medicines. We were engulfed by the adrenaline rush in the frantic rescue of people, pets and possessions in the early hours of the morning, and worst of all many lost friends and family who were swept away in the raging waters. In the aftermath, the overwhelming scale of the clean-up and the grief we feel for friends and family who’ve lost everything brings our emotions to the brink even as the stench of death and disease still fills the air.
In the wake of this disaster, when the reality of what has happened starts sinking in, questions arise. Who or what has caused this tragedy? Why has this happened? How do we live after this and what should we do now? Answering those questions is not easy and it does not come naturally. Something inside us wants to run and hide and forget this ever happened. Nothing makes sense. Despair is all around.
Answers seem very far from our grasp, but for Christians having biblical answers for the sake of our own understanding and to enable us to respond appropriately is crucial. Many Christians will be tempted to answer the questions that arise after this disaster in the same way as the world. These answers may seem right and even sentimental but they are a hindrance. We need to know the truth.
The first glimmer of light comes when we remember that we have been given truth. Psalm 119 says that God’s Word is “a lamp to [our] feet and a light to [our] path” (v 105) and that the “sum of [His] word is truth” (v160). Fortunately, in His providence, our Lord has plenty to say in His Word about natural disasters. What follows over the coming days is a look at what our Master has revealed about calamity – who is responsible, why does it happen and how we should respond…
