Where is God?

Where is God? Who is God? What is God?-these are some of the questions we are familiar with. In times of peril, even those who believe in God wonder about the whereabouts of God. Many debate and deny the existence of God, because they cannot equate a loving God with a suffering world.

How could a loving God allow poverty, violence, injustice, tornadoes, tsunamis to happen in the world and do nothing about it? they ask. Where is  a loving God when a child dies of hunger? Reasonable question. We wish we could give a satisfying answer. But we are unable to do so with our limited love and understanding.

It's here I'd like to share a story, which Mother Theresa wrote in her book, "Where there is Love, there is God." A man once came to Mother Theresa's place with a prescription from a doctor. His child was dying in the nearby slum in Calcutta, and the prescribed medicine could not be found in any part of India at that time. It had to be brought from England. There was no way the man could get the medicine from abroad to save his child. He had neither money nor influence.

As the man and Mother Theresa were talking, another walked in with a basket of medicines. To equip the mobile clinics that served the poor all over the slums in Calcutta, workers from Mother Theresa's organization, went around gathering half-used medicines from houses around the city. On that particular day, the man was bringing all the half-used medicines that he had collected on his rounds.

Mother Theresa couldn't believe what she saw in the basket the man handed to her. On right on top of the basket was the exact medicine that the doctor had prescribed for the dying child. She writes, " I just couldn't believe because if it was inside, I would not have seen it. If he had come before or after, I would not have connected. I just stood in front of that basket and kept looking at the bottle and in my mind I was saying, Millions and millions and millions of children in the world- how could God be concerned with that the little child in the slums of Calcutta. To send that medicine, to send that man just at that time, to put that medicine right on the top and to sendthe full amout that the doctor had prescribed."

Where was God that day? He was there, right in the middle of the situation, working through the man who went out to collect the half-used medicines on behalf of sick and dying people in the slums of Calcutta and through sacrificial love of Mother Theresa who toiled for the poor and outcastes of the society in India.  God is love. He is everywhere . Up in the heaven and down on earth looking for you and me to be hands and feet.  He needs us to be the channels through which He could display His undying love and compassion to the hurting world. His heart weeps when we choose to turn the other way and leave the hurting world go unattended.

God made a beautiful earth for us to live in. But when sin entered, evil followed and made the place imperfect with man made potholes. Nature does act up with vengence at times and bring disasters to our surroundings.  In the middle of such devastation, God shows up and bring help and healing through compassionate people who donate goods, feed the hungry and build or rebuild houses. God need our partnership to heal, comfort and build this broken world. The question is "Are we willing to co-operate with Him?"

So, the next time when someone asks me " Where is God?"  I need to pause for a  moment before I give the answer.  I need to examine myself first  to find out whether I've  failed in anyway to represent God's love and care to him for him/her to ask the question.
"Where there is love, there is God. God is Love."

Are we displaying God's love to others? If not, don't be surprised when someone asks "Where is God?"  Action speaks much louder than words and remains longer in memory!
" Preach the gospel all the time. If necessary use words."- St. Francis of Assisi.***