We are told by the media that this year has been the worst ever in Australia, that we’ve had unprecedented fires and floods, and now this virus.

But once again, the media have got it wrong.

Our bushfires of nine years ago killed five times as many people as our fires of last summer.

And the number of people in the world lost to this virus is less than one million (in August 2020), which is tiny compared to the toll of the Spanish Flu of 1919, of more than 50 million.

The sad fact is that our history is full of tragic disasters. But I think the reason we so easily forget is very good, it shows we see each new case of suffering or death as tragic, and we focus completely upon that.

Imagine you are in the midst of a disaster, and a child who has lost his family asks you, “If God is good and rules over the world, why did this happen? Where is God’s purpose in all of this?”

How can we answer?

I think there are three things we can confidently say:

Firstly, we know it wasn’t meant to be like this.

God created our world perfectly good, he made us in his own image, and gave us freedom, even the freedom to reject him and his loving care for us.

First Adam, and then every generation since, has made the choice to reject and rebel against God, which brought sin, suffering and death into this world, and put a curse on all creation.

Romans 5:12 reads, “death came to all men, because all sinned.”

Second, God knows our pain, and in Jesus He has endured it for us.

Here at the Lord’s Table we celebrate the miracle that God has acted to rescue us in the only way possible.

He sent his son Jesus, who suffered far beyond what we can imagine, when at Calvary he took the suffering and death caused by sin, for all of mankind, and for all time, on himself on the cross.

Hebrews 2:14 reads, “he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death”

No matter what our suffering, Jesus has walked through the darkest of valleys before us, and He will lead us through them. And in rising from the dead he has turned our tragedy into joy and victory.

He gives real life to all who turn to him in faith, and He will carry them safely to live with him, forever.

And lastly, we know that this broken world with its curse of sin will pass away, our Lord will make everything new.

Revelation 21:3 reads, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.”

As we come to this meal, let us allow His Spirit to rule in our hearts. None of our troubles can separate us from the love of God, nor take us from the path He has prepared for us.