This is a hard post to write. It was even harder watching the news tonight, seeing the tied-up, mangled bodies of civilians in the streets of Bucha after Russia’s genocide of Ukrainians. And this is just me watching, hearing about the horrors. People are actually living through this nightmare, in all corners of the world.
I want to curse and throw up and cry and just get a straightforward answer to, “How?” How is this possible, in this day and age? How can one human being commit such atrocities to another human being? And then I ask, “Why?”
Why does God allow this suffering?
I wish I had a clear-cut vision of the purpose behind it all. But I don’t think God works that way, and I certainly don’t believe “everything happens for a reason.” Because this is evil and this is cruel and this is the exact opposite of what God desires.
The shortest verse of the Bible is John 11:35, which simply reads, “Jesus wept.” Our savior was sent to Earth to be among us, to be an example and live with the people he loves so much. But Jesus also came to serve as a vessel for God. When his friend, Lazarus, had died Jesus reacted as a human. He had compassion. He had grief. He wept.
Human beings can be selfish and overcome with hatred and greed. Terrible things happen by our own hands, and Jesus feels this pain alongside us. Free will enables atrocities, but it gives us the opportunity to turn to Christ in times of darkness. His mission of peace is the rock on which we stand, even when all hope seems lost. We have compassion, we grieve, and we weep. And then we keep fighting for the light.
Click here to donate to to UMCOR—the United Methodist Committee on Relief, to assist those in Ukraine as well as Ukrainian refugees who have fled to neighboring countries.
Rachel Fisher 