Yesterday, at Brussels International Airport, two bombs went off and killed over thirty people, with many scarred by the trauma of the event. (www.bbc.com)

But that’s not the first tragedy to strike the world. Just last year, ISIS struck Paris in a series of traumatic attacks. And, a couple of months back, California dealt with their own incident, this one a shooting. Not to mention that we have hundreds of refugees fleeing from danger in their own country and hundreds of our own citizens dealing with homelessness, poverty, disease, abuse, and about a thousand other tragedies.

Most of this doesn’t even surprise us when we see it. It’s just another hour of nightly news, which leaves us asking “Where is God in all of this?”

It has often been said that tragedy is the atheist’s best argument against God. After all, if God is good, why would He allow suffering?

The truth is, we often don’t know. We can’t always explain the reason behind every tragedy. While I believe that God can work through tragedy, I don’t believe He ever causes it.  It is simply the result of living in a fallen world. Someday, God promises to take away the suffering of the world, and make it bright, beautiful, and new.

We have hope, even in a world that’s broken. Jesus experienced suffering on this earth too, as He died on the cross to wash away our sins. And, because He did, no matter what we go through in this life, we can have hope for the next. Hebrews 9:28 says “So Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.”

When Jesus died on the cross, He didn’t stay dead. God Himself looked tragedy straight in the eye so that in the end, none of us would have to. He was beat, flogged, and harassed, and nailed to the cross in hopes that each of us, when we came to the end of life, wouldn’t be faced with death but new life. 

And, because of the cross, we have been given the freedom to go to God directly and approach Him with anything that may be weighing heavily on our heart.

God is bigger than the tragedies that we face in this life. I am not saying this to belittle what the people affected by Brussels went through, but to remind anyone reading this that we have hope beyond this life. As a popular worship song titled Your Love Neve Fails says, “there may be pain in the night, but joy comes in the morning.”

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 says, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”

This Easter week, let’s praise God for the life that He’s poured out for us and remain in prayer for all those around the world dealing with hardships.