1. Benton Falls

3. Where was God?

4. How you are internally processing this question says much about your theology as it pertains to the nature of God and His interaction with us.

5. What is your theology? – Unbelievers say tragedies like this show there is no God. – Some believe if there is a “supreme being” he is detached, has largely ceded dominion over the natural realm, and intervenes only for his own purposes. – Some are convinced that no one is innocent in this fallen world and such tragedies are our just reward. – Some say it’s akin to blasphemy to even be pondering such a question as “Where was God?”

6. What is your theology? (Cont’d) – Some say such tragedy is likely punishment or a “wake-up call” to someone in the family for their sin or lack of faith. – Some believe God mercifully intervenes in tragedies in ways we don’t see or understand. – Some believe from the beginning this event, as well as every other, was foreknown and pre-ordained as part of a “scripted master plan” and is not alterable.

7. – Some believe God changes his plan, but only in direct proportion to our fervency of faith and prayer. – Some believe God has designed self-imposed limitations on His intervention, which are primarily influenced by our “nearness” to Him. – Some believe God has made Himself vulnerable to His created beings by leaving the future, including tragedy and our response to it, unknown to even Himself, in other words, He has put Himself at risk. What is your theology? (Cont’d)

8. Holy “For I am the Lord. I do not change.” Malachi 3:6 Full of Wisdom Creator Sovereign Merciful Wrathful Lovingkindness Eternal

9. What physicists ponder….. Grand Unified Theory – Relationship between the weak interactions and strong Interactions within the nucleus of the atom, and electromagnetism. Theory of Everything – Adds gravity to the mix. Your theology is how you have consistently reconciled your beliefs about God and the various aspects of His nature with how He interacts with the created world……that is your Theory of Everything.

10. Holy “Jesus is the same yesterday, now, and forever.” Hebrews 13:8 Full of Wisdom Creator Sovereign Merciful Wrathful Divine Intervention Foreknowledge Lovingkindness Free Will Redemption Eternal Perfect Justice

11. Some things we do know….! God loves us. Beginning in the Garden, God designed a place suitable for man, and it was “Good”…. …..but now evil and tragedy exist in this fallen and broken world. The scriptures tell us that God experiences disappointment, sadness, regret, and anger. The most precious and vulnerable among us, the children, often suffer too. When this happens God still loves and cares for us.

12. In doing so we draw nearer to the mind of God, closer to being “after His own heart”. We are fortified for the time when tragedy, heartbreak, anxiety, and desperation come. Not “if”, but “when”. Our faith is not slain when we pray our hardest, and we don’t see a response, or when seemingly senseless tragedy occurs. Why is considering these things important?

13. In doing so we draw nearer to the mind of God, closer to being “after His own heart”. We are fortified for the time when tragedy, heartbreak, anxiety, and desperation come. Not “if”, but “when”. Our faith is not slain when we pray our hardest, and we don’t see a response, or when seemingly senseless tragedy occurs.

14. Susan and Luke

15. Elora (“God is my Light”)