John 16:33 — These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

It’s hard sometimes to contemplate the tragedies of life. The devastating landslide in Washington State is one that, somehow, is hitting me hard.
As I write, the official death toll is 24 — but with more than 100 still unaccounted for the final count will be far higher.
To someone of my age, born in Britain, there are inevitable echoes of another terrible disaster. On October 21, 1966 near Merthy Tydfil in Wales a coal tip above the mining village of Aberfan slid down the mountain and overwhelmed a farm, several houses and a school. 116 pupils at Pantglas Junior School were killed, as were 28 adults also died.
It is perhaps premature to be judging the cause of the disaster in Snohomish County and yet it seems that both tragedies may have a common background of disregard for warning signs. In the case of Aberfan, local government officials had complained of the risk posed by the tip but been overruled by Coal Board officials. In Snohomish County, despite warning reports from 1999 and 2010, the county’s Emergency Management
Officer said “People knew that this is a landslide-prone area. Sometimes big events just happen. Sometimes large events that nobody sees happen. And this event happened, and I want to find out why. I don’t have those answers right now.”
Inevitably another question will be asked about the mudslide outside the small town of Oso. It was asked after Aberfan, and it seems to be asked after every disaster. “Why did God let it happen?”
God might reply, “Why did you let it happen?”
Sometimes the causes of tragedies are easily, directly, identifiable. Even when they aren’t, we need to recall the context. We live in a broken world.
God made a perfect world free from pain and suffering. It stayed that way until the moment that Adam and Eve decided to exercise their free will and disobey the simple rules God had given them. When they made that choice the world became a place in which bad things can happen.
The good news is that there will come a day when “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” (Revelation 21:4). The theme of the Bible is the way that God, through the work of His Son Jesus Christ, heals the rift between Himself and us. Part of that healing is the restoration of creation which “groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.” (Romans 8:22)
We live in a broken world, in which we will have tribulation. We know that Jesus, through His death on the cross, has overcome the brokenness. Even amidst tragedy, be of good cheer!