Dear Members and Friends of our ELS:

Offering responses are still coming in. People want to help. The enormity of the disaster cannot be forgotten. Prayers continue to rise heavenward for the victims of the December 26 tsunami in the region of the Indian Ocean. The relief efforts are amazing. Yet we know the attempts at restoration will go on for years.

Why does God allow such global disasters? A quick answer might be: "Well, He predicted such things! Just check out Matthew 24." It is true that Jesus listed tumultuous events in nature as one of the signs of the end times, urging all to prepare for his return in glory as the world's judge. But there is more to be said.

We confess that God's judgments are not searchable and that "his paths are beyond tracing out" (Romans 11:33). Nevertheless, God has recorded in His Word the guiding principles that ought to shape our understanding of wide-scale catastrophes.

In His providence God primarily is concerned about the promulgation of His Word. This does not mean He is disinterested in all the details of life. He knows the hairs on our heads and the moment a sparrow hits the ground (Matthew 10:29, 30). But the key reason God keeps the world functioning is that His Gospel may be spread to more countries and more individuals. He eagerly wants all people to come to repentance and faith before He brings this present life to a close (2 Peter 3:9).

What does this mean in the wake of world disasters? We trust that the Lord has a missionary plan for reaching more souls. If people do not hear the news of the Savior, how can they be saved from the permanent destruction of hell (Romans 10:14)? So, as we petition our Lord for the victims' bodily needs, we especially pray that Christ's Gospel will have free course in the countries affected.

Believers know that all evil and suffering in the world is a result of the fall into sin. God is not to be blamed. Yet He always is in control and has promised that all things in life-even the tragic things-serve for the good of His church (Romans 8:28).

God sends punishments. But none of us dares to presume to know precisely why God allows tragic deaths to occur on a case-by-case, nation-by-nation basis (Luke 13:1-5). Unbelievers and believers often are affected by the same disaster. We learned, for example, of a Lutheran pastor and his wife who lost their lives in the tsunami while on an overturned train in Sri Lanka. The pastor recently had finished translating the Book of Concord into one of the languages of the Sri Lankans. For all Christians who experience hardship of any kind, on a small or large scale, there is the promise that the sufferings of this present time "are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed in us" (Romans 8:18).

The great events of Good Friday and Easter morning seal that truth!