Malaysian Highway Accident

* Update! Baby Jolene is now in her uncle's care and she will go for checkup at hospital in Singapore *

One of the headlines in the newspaper today was "Family of four died in traffic accident in Malaysian Highway".

Learned that all the persons in the car died except one infant Jolene Bong (2 months old). The baby miraculously survived the crash. It was revealed she was flung 10m away from the car. Read abt it here: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/337632/1/.html

When I read about the news, I have mixed feelings about it. A part of me felt that everything is pre-ordained, such as how we depart from this world. However, I also felt that God has extended his grace to the family by allowing the baby to survive. U may disagree with me that it is cruel for God to take away the lives of the family members and it would be better off for the infant to be with his family (dead), but my view is that God may have other plans for baby Jolene.

We will never be able to explain why God takes away the lives of some and preserve others, but we have to believe that God is sovereign and whatever decision he made is according to his will.

Harold Kushner, a rabbi, came to the conclusion that God is perhaps powerless to stop tragedies from happening. He claim that he would rather believe in a God who is powerless to intervene, rather than one who choose not to intervene even though he could do so. He cannot worship a God who does not save.

John Piper, a reformed theologian, refuted the rabbi. He told his congregation that as senior pastor of his church it is his duty to educate them not to curse God when tragedies happen. We all know that even as believers, life is not always full of blessings, contrary to what emergent churches believe nowadays. Suffering is a reality which we must go through until God decides to bring us home. Being a Christian does not exclude u from suffering, but we know that God will go through the process of suffering with us. We are not alone. Christ is with us.

Of course, it is easy to get angry with God whenever lives are taken away when tragedies occurred, but we have to bear in mind that every minute we have here is really by God's grace.

Getting angry with God will not solve the problem of suffering. Bart Ehrman, an ex-baptist pastor turned agnostic and a new testament scholar who has wrote books to refute Christianity, wrote that Christianity has failed to explain the problem of suffering. He has gone one step further than Rabbi Kushner, by saying that when he die he will most likely just disappeared (God probably don't exist). There are many people in this world who apparently gave up on God when they became disillusioned, even those who have walked close with God. We can only pray for Ehrman, whose wife is still a believer, that God have mercy on him.

We know that God has promised to give comfort to those who wept and at the end of the day, he will wipe away our tears and all these sufferings will end forever. Our hope is in Christ, who has redeemed us from our sins, and he will come to make things right in the end.

Pray that baby Jolene be able to recover fast and God will give comfort to the relatives of the victims. Also pray that God will strengthen us through every adversity in our live journeys. Amen.