Where does the love of God go?

A day or two after the news of the devastating earthquake in Turkey back on Feb. 6, I posted on Facebook that the then estimated death toll of the natural disaster had surpassed 21,000 people – human beings – and that that unfathomable number was already larger by thousands than the population of our cozy little town of Lexington (19,094 in 2019).

That number was almost inconceivable to me. In just a few seconds, tens of thousands of people had perished. Living, breathing, thinking entities in one moment doing common, everyday, routine human things, then gone the next.

In my own head, I thought the death toll perhaps would reach into the 30,000 range. But no, as of today, it's estimated that an astounding 47,000 people have died. I suppose, in the end, it could reach 50,000 or 60,000. Maybe higher.

Incredibly, three weeks later, a few survivors are still being pulled from the weight and debris of fallen buildings.

Then, the other day, I received a text from one of my friends, writing that the climbing death toll "Wouldn't seem to qualify as an act of God."

That one hit me square, and got me to thinking as I am sometimes wont to do.

Although that particular phrase is mostly used for insurance purposes, I think I know what he meant: if God is a loving God, how could He allow a natural disaster like this to happen? If we are His creation, why destroy us? Would destroying us be suggesting He made a mistake in our creation? So then He's not omniscient if he made a mistake? Do people die in natural disasters because they are bad people and this is their punishment? If that's true, then how can He be a loving God, as most of us are taught, and not a wrathful one? Is He both?

Side note: if 50,000 people are killed in a natural disaster, does that mean any survivors were blessed by the grace of God? Is God that selective? What's his criteria for us surviving disasters?

I'm no theologian. I'm simply thinking out loud here.

There are a plethora of natural disasters that plague us: hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, droughts, fires that cost lives. What about wars? Just a few hundred miles across the Black Sea from Turkey is Ukraine, fighting for its very life in an unjust and illegal war started by Russia. Thousands have died there, and no doubt more will. Where is God?

I read somewhere that natural disasters (and thus evil) are the work of the devil. So why is there a devil? If God is omnipotent, why can't He eliminate the devil? Or was that another mistake?

Or are natural disasters – or wars, or disease, or plane or car crashes, or Jan. 6 or Adolf Hitler – God's own free will, where after creation He set the whole thing into motion and then sat back to see how it all plays out?

Since we die anyway, what does all of this mean? That natural disasters get us to death sooner?

I'm not sure I can find many answers in the Bible. The Bible is said to be the word of God, but wasn't the Bible written by humans who may or may not have misinterpreted the word? Isn't most of the Bible allegorical history, designed to teach and set guidelines to help us make society work? And isn't the Bible mostly a Christian tool that we use to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? What about other religions? What about Judaism, Hinduism, Shintoism, Buddhism, or even Deism and others? Is anybody right? Is anybody wrong?

Where does the love of God go?