In our last church we had two families that were directly involved in the Tsunami in Sri Lanka. One family came back from their holiday with a miraculous tale of how God had sovereignly intervened: A dog bit their child so they went to casualty instead of the beach thus missing the huge waves that annihilated the place an hour later. But –lest you get too excited about that- another lady lost six members of her wider family (who lived in the area). So how do you work God into the equation in circumstances like that…. Or the Minneapolis bridge disaster… or yesterday’s earthquake in Peru where at least 17 worshippers died and over 200 were trapped as two churches collapsed?  Falling masonry in the Senor de Luren church in Ica was said to have killed 17 and injured dozens. In nearby Pisco rescuers were yesterday trying to free 200 people from the rubble of their church. About 70 per cent of this port town of 60,000 people, 125 miles south of Lima, was levelled. The tremors caused similar destruction in a third town, Chincha, although Lima itself escaped with only one recorded death.  President Alan Garcia declared a state of emergency but thanked God that the 7.9-magnitude quake had not caused still worse damage ‘with an immense number of victims’.

So President Garcia can thank God that the earthquake wasn’t worse!? Can someone lay some theology on me here? But I warn you…. Your theological solution has to enable me to chide Garcia, rejoice with Tsunami family no.1 and sympathise with Tsunami family no.2.