Exploring Why God Allows Suffering in a Fallen World
Before me was an object that shouldn’t exist.
The first few seconds when one stands up to officiate a funeral service are never easy. Even after decades in the ministry, one’s heart still breaks before an audience of mourners longing for closure in the midst of bereavement.
But for one particular funeral service, the emotional weight in the room was unimaginable. From the pulpit, I stared down at something so incongruous, so just… wrong… that I momentarily forgot to speak.
It was a child’s casket… like an adult’s in every detail, just really small. The little girl inside had left this world at five years old, perishing in a car accident. The cream-colored, rectangular box before us looked like a scale model of an actual casket, like some example created as a sales display. If only that had been so. But this was real, a little life had been extinguished, and a room full of heartbroken grown-ups awaited some words of comfort.
As I began with a Scripture reading and prayer, a little girl approached the podium. She was dressed as Elsa from Frozen, and raised her arms in that precious, universally-understood way that means, “Pick me up.”
She whispered in my ear, “I want to say something.”
Holding the child with one arm and wresting the microphone from the lectern, I nodded, “Go ahead.”
For a couple of moments, the little girl stared down at the miniature casket. She seemed as much at a loss to process this as the rest of us. Then, into the microphone, this precious one said of her fallen peer, “Maddie was my friend. And I loved her.”
Anyone’s pretense of holding back tears was pretty much over.
On my right were two rows of girls about 4-7 years old. Each was dressed as either Snow White, Rapunzel or Jasmine; also present were a few more Elsa’s. Their young faces seemed to watch the proceedings in quiet, matter-of-factness. These, gathered in childhood solidarity, all nodded as the little girl on my arm stated, “We will miss her.”
This parliament of little angels had bidden goodbye to one of their own.
Their spokesperson returned to her seat as spontaneously as she had come. Being called on to try and help family and community process the death of a child is an honor, really. But the image of that tiny casket still haunts me; it is an object that practically forces the human heart to ask, “Why? . . . Why?”
Fatal floods — and the perennial question
As authorities in Texas are struggling to locate the bodies drowned by the Guadalupe flood, people everywhere are struggling to understand why such a thing would happen. “Why?” we wonder. “Why — in the midst of summertime fun — would children and teens be subjected to violent death by flash flood?”
Why would such carnage fall on innocent young lives, and at a beloved Christian camp, no less? The floods of central Texas left at least 110 known dead and 160 people unaccounted for. “Couldn’t God have intervened to stop this?” many wonder.
The answer is, “Yes.” It stands to reason that an all-powerful God could stop any finite storm. Theism (the belief that God created the universe and can act within it) teaches that nothing occurs in this world beyond His sovereign control. Disasters and sufferings met in this life — painful as they are — should not lead us to assume that God doesn’t exist or doesn’t care.
When trying to reconcile the reality of tragedies (such as in Texas) with the existence of a benevolent, wise God (such as we’ve pondered our whole lives), it is important to think very carefully: Biblical thinkers throughout the ages have made a distinction between caused versus allowed.
God doesn’t cause evil or pain in our lives, but He certainly sometimes allows it. In no way do we trivialize or ignore that, without warning, this world can deal any of us circumstances of unthinkable pain. That’s just an “occupational hazard” in life as a human being. But where do we turn for understanding and solace?
The Biblically orthodox, textbook answers (which are, I am convinced, absolutely true) remind us that bad things happen in a fallen world. This life is about our soul being converted and perfected, and that Christ is coming back one day to make all things right, at which time all tears will be wiped away (c.f. Isaiah 65:17; Revelation 21:4-5).
But we must seek from God Himself the mental and spiritual resilience necessary to endure times of great suffering. It takes humility and maturity to prayerfully wait on God while life crumbles around us. And we don’t naturally possess this in ourselves. But the Lord Almighty has promised — promised — to help us when we lean in to Him (James 4:8).
Psalm 34:18 says, “The LORD is near unto them that are of a broken heart.” Texas has certainly been impacted the most, but we join with all of America in praying for those who lost loved ones in floods across several states. May all of the bereaved tangibly feel God’s presence at this time.
And through the days of great hurt (and in times of great joy), may we all remember that God is as close by as a prayer.
Dr. Alex McFarland is a youth, religion and culture expert, a national talk show host and speaker, educator, and author of 20 books. Via the American Family Radio Network, Alex is heard live on Exploring the Word, airing daily on nearly 200 radio stations across the U.S. “The Alex McFarland Show” airs weekly on NRBTV, providing Biblically faithful TV and discussion on current events affecting our nation.
