Where was God?

One man asked that question about the shooting and many people were upset with him for asking that question but it really is a good question.  I know the man wasn't just curious about God's whereabouts but was in fact mocking God's existence.  Still, it is a question we all face and it really does deserve an answer.

In the scriptures God says he made the rain to fall on the just and the unjust.  It doesn't matter if we have served God faithfully for fifty years, two weeks or never.  Life happens to us all.. God doesn't pick sides.  Now some people claim that nothing happens without God's will and that is true.  We must remember that God has a permissive will.  God sometimes guides events and people, sometimes He directly interferes and sometimes he allows thing to unfold naturally.  The bible if full of examples of each aspect of God. 

I think most people would be upset if God made us do what he would have us do.  That is what got man into trouble in the first place and why so many people  ignore God for the most part.  They want God to help them over the rough spots, to heal people of sickness and to make everything okay but please, no interfering in my decision making. 

It is our decision after all to serve God or not to serve God.  And as long as man wants to make that decision then God will allow rain to fall on the just and the unjust. 

God is there for the little ones, the ones to young or otherwise incapable of making a decision about eternity.  He will take them home to be with him.  God is also there for others as well giving them the strength and courage to hold together and to deal with the aftermath of what has occurred.  But we must remember that God says He will if we do.  In other words, the prayers of the unrighteous will no be answered nor will the prayers of God's children if there is unconfessed and unrepeated of sin in their lives. 

We cannot impart to God the feelings and emotions we have for God is not the same as we are.  There is more about him and his plan than we will ever understand or are even capable of understanding.  But God has revealed himself to us to the fullest extent we need to know. 

God is not a crutch, an illusion, a figment of ones imagination, imaginary, dead or a lie.  God is real.