Children playing at child friendly space built for children displaced by Typhoon Fengshen. Photo by World Vision. |
|
When Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar in the delta of the Irrawaddy, then swept over Yangon and its neighbourhoods, a great tragedy rocked not only the nation itself but also the whole world around. The disaster caused unbelievable shocking sufferings to the legendary golden land of South East Asia. In a split second, hundreds of thousands of homes and lives were washed away, countless dead bodies were floating on seas of muddy water, the sky and earth instantly became tents and mats for a million; hunger, injury and sickness seemed to be the poor’s angels of death.
In such atrocious circumstances, there seemed among the humanely conscious minds one dominant thought to be pondered. “Where is God at a time like this?”
Philip Yancey, a Christian writer and God’s servant, had challenged himself to find the answer for that profound question. “Where is God when it hurts?” as he could not help but see how human beings were suffering. |
The search for the footprints of God on earth is certainly not an easy task, but Yancey has finally found them. Remember that unforgettable day when the notable World Trade center collapsed and turned into “Ground Zero”? Whatever the reason that caused it, he saw “Grace at Ground Zero”, Yancey said in his relatively new book: “Finding God in unexpected places”. He witnessed an “army” of compassionate workers there. They worked around the clock, and for weeks on end, rescuing those lives trapped under the rubble, mending the wounded, sustaining people’s physical needs, wiping tears misery… And God had certainly revealed Himself in the “presence of God’s people on earth,” he assured.
Call it another Ground Zero, perhaps? Its reality nevertheless is different, far more disastrous than anyone could imagine. We realise that we are just the empty hands with broken hearts, what can we share with others and how can we heal their hurts? Even ourselves, we are destitute and powerless!
In the midst of this turmoil, a story unexpectedly comes to me, a lesson of hope and great power that comes from empty hands. It’s the story of Elijah, a great servant of God of the Biblical times. He was once a desperate man with empty hands, running away from disaster. But God sent him to Zarephath, to a destitute widow who had “only a handful of flour…that she and her sick son may eat and then die.” And the servant of God not only saved the life of the widow’s son, he also multiplied her meal and oil to save her from destitution and debt (1 Kings 17) . God simply wanted him to do that “small and quiet task” for those forgotten people, and leave other “great" things for Him.
I believe this is a great story of hope, comfort, and encouragement for us all. Our reality seems beyond our own capacity to handle, or turns us to be useless. But our Father God always does things for us, “exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us”. (Ephesians 3:20)
And as the Psalmist said, “I am still confident of this; I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” (Psalms 27:13), let us hope and pray that “after the heavy rain the sun shines even brighter.” |
