Where is God in Haiti ? by Rich Stearns

Where is God in Haiti?

A reflection by Rich Stearns

Last week I stood in the streets of Port au Prince Haiti weeping at the
scope and scale of human suffering. Tens of thousands died – men, women,
children, mothers, fathers, pastors, priests – no one was exempt. Hundreds
of thousands wandered stunned, hungry and homeless in the streets, who
while still alive had their lives taken from them. Who of us in these past
days has not asked the question, ‘Where was God?’ or ‘Why God?’ The sudden
deaths of so many innocent people and the staggering human suffering that
persists seems to mock the very notion of a loving God. Where is God in
Haiti?

There was another time that God was mocked in the face of suffering and
evil. It happened on Calvary as our Lord and savior Jesus Christ, God’s
own son, was spat upon, beaten and hanged on a cross. And people asked
where God was then?

…come down from the cross and save yourself!"
(They) mocked him among themselves. "He saved others," they said, "but he
can't save himself!

If He was God, why didn’t he save himself – why not prevent this suffering
from happening – why not save the Jewish people from their bondage to Rome
- why not face this evil and turn it back? But God had another way. On
that cross we are told that Jesus faced all the evil that ever was or ever
would be. He took upon Himself the sins of mankind, the evils of injustice
the pain of suffering and loss, the brokenness of the world. He felt every
pain and took every punishment for every person who would ever live. Out
of his own suffering, the prophet Isaiah looked forward 700 years to this
God in human form.

He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed. Isaiah 53

Where is God in Haiti? Christ is not distant from us in our times of
suffering. He is not indifferent or detached. He does not look upon us
from far away. He lies crushed under the weight of concrete walls. He lies
wounded in the street with his legs broken. He walks homeless through the
camps hungry and unfed. He weeps uncontrollably over the child that He has
lost.

Where is God in Haiti? He hangs bloody on the cross,… ‘a man of sorrows,
and familiar with our suffering’.

But where is hope we might ask? Where is justice for the dead the broken
and the grieving? Here, alas we need to see something not easily seen from
human perspective. We, not God, are trapped in time. We, not God, see
only in part and cannot yet see the whole. We, not God, must wait for that
day when …. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more
death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed
away." Revelation

We live in the ‘not yet’ but God sees the ‘already’. We see today and
yesterday but not tomorrow. But God sees all three at once. In Him, those
crushed in Haiti are alive already. In Him, those orphaned in Haiti are
reunited with family already. In Him, those broken in Haiti are healed
already. In Him, those grieving in Haiti rejoice already. Jesus Christ
is…
… the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For
in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and
invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things
have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and
in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the
church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that
in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have
all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself
all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace
through his blood, shed on the cross.

He is no distant God who turns His back on us. He is no callous God who
sheds no tears. He is the God who… so loved the world that he gave his one
and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have
eternal life. He is God, who shed His own blood for us.

How then should we think? How then should we live? What then, must we do?
Unlike God, we live in the time between the ‘already’ and ‘not yet’… and we
must wait ‘until then’. Until then, we are commanded to ‘love our
neighbors as ourselves’. Until then, we are called to comfort the
afflicted, give food to the hungry and water to the thirsty. Until then we
are to shelter the homeless, clothe the naked, and grieve with the
grieving. Until then, we are to care for the widow, the orphan, the alien
and the stranger. We are to let our light so shine before others, that
they might see our good deeds and give glory to our Father in heaven.
Until then, as the apostle Paul wrote, ‘We are therefore Christ’s
ambassadors, …as though God were making His appeal through us.’ Until
then, we must show forth God’s deep love for Haiti.

Kirsten Stearns
Team World Vision East Coast | Run a race. Change lives in Africa.


Phone 212.945.8327 | Fax 212.736.9755 | kstearns@worldvision.org
Mail Stop 4th Floor | 143 West 29th Street | New York, New York
10001 USA
World Vision | Building a better world for children |
www.teamworldvision.org |
www.meetup.com/twvnyc