A Bear, A Bridge, & God’s Purpose In The Universe

Since my journal entry today kicks around the three interrelated subjects in the title, I’ll tackle the easiest topic first:

What is God’s plan and purpose in the universe?

I don’t have a clue.

Now that that’s settled, let’s move on to the bear.

This morning I climbed up on our roof to blow off fallen branches and leaves to clear the rain gutters. As I worked, I thought about how the purpose of God relates to two recent items in the news.

Here’s a clipping from the local newspaper:

Bear in road leaves three riders seriously injured

Three people were seriously injured when they were thrown from their motorcycles in a collision with a black bear.

The three were among a group of six motorcyclists traveling Interstate 95 in St. Johns County about 9 p.m. Saturday.

When the riders were south of Florida 207, the bear ran into the left lane of the interstate and motorcyclist Kristina Hall, 43, of Middleburg was unable to avoid hitting it. Hall was thrown from her 2006 Harley-Davidson.

Rider Harriet Ward, 65, of Orange Park, hit Hall's motorcycle with her 2004 Honda and was thrown from her bike, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

A second motorcyclist, Russell Lemmon, 38, of Jacksonville, also struck the bear and was thrown from his 1984 Honda.

All three were taken to Flagler Hospital with serious injuries, according to the Highway Patrol.

A later report added:

"All I saw was a black blob in front me, just before I hit it," Harriet Ward, 64, said Monday from her room at Flagler Hospital in St. Augustine.

The Orange Park woman said she was the second in the group of six motorcyclists to hit the bear. ..

Ward faces surgery today to repair fractures to both ankles, she said. She also is being treated for a dislocated arm.

The retiree estimates she will be wheelchair bound as she recovers but knows it could have been worse.

The wreck closed the northbound lanes for an hour, according to the FHP.

A second crash, between a St. Johns County Sheriff's Office vehicle and another vehicle, followed. Sheriff's Office spokesman Kevin Kelshaw said the wreck was minor and occurred as the deputy responded to the accident call involving the bear.

Here’s my dilemma:

Hundreds of motorcyclists travel Interstate 95 every day, thousands of heavy trucks roar up and down that same stretch of road just south of Jacksonville every day, hundreds of thousands of cars commute along that stretch of road every day — so why did these three cyclists hit a black bear and get injured?

They were in a party of six. Why were three taken and three left safe?

Are such happenings random chance without meaning? Is it a matter of luck for the cyclists who missed hitting the bear? Or do such tragedies fit into some divine plan?

Or was last Saturday simply a bad day for bears? (Yes, the bear died on the road).

Questions about random meaningless chance and God’s deliberate plan have been discussed by generations of the world’s smartest theologians, philosophers, and sophomores.

And here I am up on the housetop cleaning rain gutters with a leaf blower and pondering those same questions. The thought struck me that Jesus said something about two men on the housetop and one was taken and the other left, didn’t He?

When I checked my Bible latter, I found that He said nothing of the sort; the thing about the guy on the roof came earlier in the passage of Scripture I miss-remembered. As Matthew records it, what He did say was:

“Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come”.

These verses appear to apply to both the Second Advent and to death. When Luke records the same words, he refers to “eagles”, meaning vultures, gathering around a dead body.

So Jesus knew that some are taken, but some survive.

In these passages, He does not spell out which person is which or why.

Why? Is it all horrible senseless chance or does God have purpose in the things which happen to us?

On the tv Thursday evening I watched a news reporter standing in the debris of a collapsed bridge struggle with such questions.

During rush hour traffic Wednesday in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a bridge carrying traffic along Interstate 35 over the Mississippi River collapsed into the river.

A school bus carrying children, a paraplegic’s van, many commuters crossing the bridge survived by inches. Even now no one know how many cars, trucks, buses, vans plunged into the river or were crushed by debris. Over a hundred injured people were hospitalized. Twenty people have been reported missing. Only five bodies have been recovered so far but more are expected.

As best I can remember of how the reporter posed the question (and I think he may have been quoting someone else) he said,

“There must be some reason, some purpose for why this happened. Either God governs the universe according to a divine plan, or the collapse of the bridge is a meaningless phenomenon and the universe is without divine purpose”.

We don’t hear that sort of question very often on the evening news.

I suspect we all think about such things now and then, but a tragedy brings them to the surface.

We all ask why.

We seek meaning.

We look for hope.

We flirt with despair.

We demand explanations.

And we blame.

Already I hear rumblings wanting to place blame on the highway department, the bridge inspectors, the construction companies, heavy trucks — God. Some folks even blame the victims of a tragedy for what happens to them!

Ever heard anyone say, “Well, he deserved it”?

Do the innocent and good get called to Heaven early by the Trade Center crash, the terrorist bomb, AIDS, the car accident, cancer, crib death, bridge collapse, bear in the road — while the wicked and bad get zapped in the exact same event? Is that God’s design?

In a tv interview one man who crossed the bridge safely seconds before it fell said, “I guess God was looking over me today”.

Really?

Was He not looking out for the people who fell 60 feet in a tangle of jagged concrete rebar, snapped cables, and twisted girders into the muddy water?

Were these victims less loved of God than survivors?

Jesus kept up with the news of the day.

Once as He taught, bystanders informed Him that Roman soldiers had killed some Galilean insurgents; the men wanted His reaction to the news.

“Suppose ye,” He said, “That these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, Nay! But, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

“Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men, that dwelt in Jerusalem?

“I tell you Nay: but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish”.

In another place, rabble rousers (actually they were His own disciples) pointed out to Jesus a man born blind; they wanted someone to blame:

“Master,” they said, “Who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind”?

Jesus answered, “Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him”.

There’s a whole chapter of the Bible devoted to this incident.

Is this why the bear crossed the road?

Is this why the bridge collapsed hurting all those people?

That the works of God should be made manifest???

Is that my conclusion?

Not exactly.

When the tornado struck and the building they were in collapsed killing Job’s children, he questioned God; yet at the same time, he said of the Lord, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him”.

That makes sense to me even when nothing else does.

I said starting out that I do not have a clue about why or how God’s plan and purpose works, but I do have a solid confidence about such things.

When my own life has hit unexpected things in my road, When things I expected to support me collapsed under my feet, When things that should go right, go wrong. When people I thought reliable, aren’t. When faith hits the fan and doubts splatter around me...

Even then, I believe God is good.

I trust Him.

I’m neither smart nor profound. I have no answers. But I trust that Jesus is 100% reliable; He’s never shown Himself otherwise to anybody.

So, as to the deep, troubling questions of random chance or divine reason, I have no answer… However, I half remember a quote from someone somewhere that sums it up for me:

Five minutes after he gets there, the dumbest man in Heaven will know more about God than the smartest man on earth — and, lost in wonder, he just won’t care.