The Pine Lake Tornado
On the cover of Monday's Edmonton Journal, Ashley Thomson is called the miracle baby. She's the four-month-old who was ripped from her car seat and sucked up as high as a three-story building by the Pine Lake tornado. The baby was placed down by the tornado a few hundred meters away with little more than a cut foot.
On the cover of Tuesday's Edmonton Journal, are two photos of two families who each lost a member of their family in the Pine Lake tornado. One picture is of Bill and Lisa Gourley with their son, Jarrod. Lisa died of her injuries sustained during the storm.
The other is a picture of Jamie and Katrina Holtom with their two children Lucas and Leah. Lucas is the two-year-old who died in that storm and was the youngest victim of the tornado.
I went to school with Jamie Holtom. We did our internships in the same city, we graduated together and were ordained together. Last time I saw Katrina she was pregnant with Lucas. When I saw the cover of the Journal I could scarcely believe the news.
Why is one family made to grieve the loss of their first born child while the other is allowed to rejoice in their miracle baby? Ashley's mother is quoted as saying that there was an angel there for her little girl. Where was the angel for Lucas Holtom? Why does one baby live while the other dies? Why is there suffering?
In Biblical times, Jews believed that suffering was punishment from God for sins. God is understood to be a parent and tragedy comes to when God's children disobey him. The people do wrong and God becomes angry with them and punishes them. That's why suffering happens according to the ancient Israelites.
Listen now to the cry of the prophet Micah
With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be please with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
Isn't that an awful way to think? With that theology today we would say that Jamie Holtom did something that angered God and so has punished him by taking away his first born son. But no one thinks like that, no one believes that.
The ancient Israelites believed that not only was one punished for one's own sins, but also for the sins of the father and all ancestors before.
The thing about a tornado is its randomness. There seems to be no rhyme or reason why one should die or one should live through the storm. It seems to be so unfair.
Again, the Bible speaks to this and says, of course life isn't fair, no one ever said life is fair. Fairness and justice is for the afterlife. Fairness and justice is promised in the afterlife. Life isn't easy just because we follow the word of God - look at Jesus suffering on the cross. Read the story of the apostle Paul he was imprisoned and ship-wrecked
We here in Canada have come to expect that life will be good, fair and free of suffering. And when suffering comes along we are shocked. In Rwanda, in Ethiopia, in most Third World countries, in most countries around the world, suffering is an everyday occurrence. It is to be expected. The loss of a child is to be expected and so women bear many children in the hope that a few will make it to adulthood.
Throughout most of history suffering was to be expected. Listen again to the cries of Jeremiah. He has been shamed as a prophet and now rues the day he was born. "Cursed be the day on which I was born! The day when my mother bore me, let it not be blessed!"
A couple of thousand years later Shakespeare writes about suffering in Hamlet's famous to be or not to be speech. "To be, or not to be, that is the question, whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing, end them." Hamlet is convinced that life on Earth is so miserable that no one would endure it if they weren't afraid of death.
Suffering is a part of life, even for a prophet, even for a prince. Suffering is to be expected.
The thing about a tornado is its randomness. There seems to be no rhyme or reason why one should die or one should live through the storm. From where does that kind of suffering come? Sometimes it is clear where suffering comes from, sometimes we cause it.
There was a story in the Edmonton Journal this week about the Poundmaker Residential School in Edmonton burning down. The United Church of Canada ran the school. White people who lost the message of Christ were in charge of the native children who attended and worked in that school. White people who attended United Churches on Sundays abused children the rest of the week.
In the name of Christianity, children were strapped for such offences as stealing food and then segregated in holding cells. Their heads were shaved and marked with a strip of white tape running down the centre of their skulls.
While the children lived in the country and were surrounded by agriculture - chickens laying eggs, cows spurting rich milk into buckets - the youngsters were always hungry. The older boys at the school worked hard in the pig barns and in the fields, but the produce went elsewhere. The children were basically treated like slaves in a work camp.
Where does suffering come from? Well, sometimes it comes from our hands. But the thing about a tornado is its randomness.
Some people think that God is in control of everything. God is a puppet master who is pulling the strings. But I don't believe that. Why would God take one child and leave another. That sounds like an awful, temperamental, inconsistent kind of God and I don't want to worship a God like that.
The thing about a tornado is its randomness.
We live in a random, chaotic world. And there is suffering here. We are promised paradise in heaven. We are promised the kingdom of God where there is justice, wholeness, peace, and fairness. And while we are here on this earth we are promised the comfort of God. God is here to support us in the chaos - to bring us comfort and meaning.
Why does one child live while the other dies? I don't really know. I don't know much. All I know is that prayer for healing works. All I know is that when I feel sad or worried and I pray for comfort, I receive it. I don't know much but I know that working for and witnessing to the kingdom of God brings me meaning and happiness to my life. And that's all I know and that makes all the difference. Amen.
