Friday, January 22, 2010

Another reason to refrain from putting a moral judgment on natural phenomena

Just got word that tonight's pro-life march in Sioux Falls is cancelled due to the incoming ice and snow storm.

This is not to deny that God, if God is what we claim, has the power to wield nature to divine ends. It's just that there are so many possible explanations, that it takes much time in prayer and in later outcomes to see just what was in God's mind.
  • + Perhaps the marchers had a bad attitude, and were not going to represent God well.
  • + Perhaps the marchers were in danger from abortion zealots or just plain crazy folks, and God wanted to protect them.
  • + I suppose one can argue that demonic forces called out the storm to stop the march, although what that says about God gets interesting.
  • + &c &c &c

We do well to keep Jesus' words in mind when we rush to explanations of natural events:

"God causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." Matthew 5, "The Sermon on the Mount"

And we should remember that God's agenda is more amazing than our puny (and generally negative) judgments:

As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. “Rabbi,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?” “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him. We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent us." John 9

2 comments:

Undergroundpewster said...

Or maybe God is waiting for better weather?

TLF+ said...

Indeed, Pewster - another variant on God protecting (and prospering) the marchers. An interpretation (or prophetic utterance) that can be made but must wait on subsequent events for validation (fulfillment).