Why?

 

Photo from National Post

Prayers across the world are being sent to Colombia today, including mine.  And as so often happens in tragedies such as this one come the questions;  “Where was God?  Where were the Angels?”  In my career as an Angel Therapist© these are probably the most asked questions of me when the horrific happens.  How can such a loving God and our Guardian Angels let such pain, loss and suffering happen?

I do not know the correct answer, nor do I know anyone who does.  But I find some comfort in a pattern I see in all human suffering, losses and tragedies.  A pattern that perhaps is a part of God’s plan.  I find that whenever a tragedy occurs; Colombia, Nine-Eleven, Columbine, Haiti, (to name just a few) that the world always steps up with love and assistance.  I find that we see miraculous survivor stories.  I find that we see the works of everyday heroes.  And I find that we see Angels on Earth who save lives, give of themselves and ask for nothing in return.   I also find this pattern in personal suffering.  When a life is lost, a family member is ill, a child disappears; people step up.  People come together to help without being asked, without being told, without any need for recognition.  People step up and become every day Angels who drive a patient with cancer to chemo, who work tirelessly to help in any way they can, who have open arms to hold someone absolutely as long as necessary.

I tell my daughters that most people are good, but I feel that sometimes the world forgets this with all the murders in the media, the criminals, the hate, the wars.  I used to be a television reporter myself and had to get out of the business when in the same month; 1. My news director became angry at me for not doing a longer interview with someone who had just lost her home in a fire and 2. When a teenager I had recently done a story on died in a car accident and my news department was more excited that we had recent video footage of him alive than they were sad that he had died.  Not all those in the media are like this of course, but I do feel there is more bad news reported than good and I wonder why we can’t show more of all the good out there that is just waiting to be recognized?  Ironically, sometimes it is the tragedies that show this good.  The tragedies that uncover the heroes and the efforts of love and the tragedies that cause people to unite.

No loss is pain free, no tragedy not tragic, but maybe, just maybe God gives us tragedies and losses sometimes to remind us that human goodness is always there.  I cannot think of one tragedy where something good, no matter how small (one survivor, one hero, one saved animal) did not come out of it to warm people’s hearts amidst all the sadness.

I know personally when my husband’s dear friend Jason died this past August (blog can be found at kristysands.com/angelic-proof/) we also asked ourselves how God could let this happen.  How he could take Jason and five other parents from this world and leave twelve kids behind? How could this happen?  But as time went on I began to see Jason and his friends as heroes due to the impact their death had on all the people of the Oxford, Mississippi community as well as on many other Americans.  People pulled together.  Parents hugged their children tighter and so much love was shown.  The loss of six precious lives brought hundreds of other lives together.  Since Jason’s death my husband has been home more often, held us all closer and has been an even more amazing dad to our daughters than ever.  He has cried, as have I.  We have revised our wills.  We miss Jason and always will.  But I thank him.  I look up often towards heaven and I thank him for his sacrifice to make so many other families closer.  For making my family closer.  For making so many others realize just how precious and fragile life is.

So perhaps just as I thank Jason, I should also thank those who passed in nine-eleven for making our country pull together.   Thank those who passed in Columbine for making us realize that teenagers need more love and attention.  Thank those who passed in tragedies like Colombia, Haiti and New Orleans for showing us how many heroes there are out there and how much love and goodness there is in our world.

At the end of the day, every tragedy, every loss, every bit of human suffering is painful.  Sometimes so painful we think we cannot survive it.  But for me, as hard as life can sometimes be, I find comfort in believing that in these times God and the Angels are also showing us human goodness and reminding us that it is there, always, even in the very worst of times.  This for me is the way I make sense of it.  Love wins. People are good.  Life is precious.

Prayers and love to all those in Colombia and great thanks to all those unrecognized heroes out there helping and loving every single day.

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