...Our congregation is collecting food and money for Food for the Poor, an organization able to transfer relief goods directly to Haiti.  But the suffering is overwhelming.  Watching the Haitian people, I can understand how the ancient Egyptians felt with plague after plague.  For Egypt it was blood, frogs, lice, insects, etc.  For Haitians it is earthquakes, hurricanes, poverty, violence, etc.  Some must think that like ancient Egypt, what is happening on this troubled island nation is a punishment from God.
       Where is God in these events?  I seem to write on this topic every few years.  After a tsunami kills thousands in Thailand, after hurricane Katrina destroys New Orleans, and after an earthquake levels Haiti, the question comes up - where is God?  Why is God sending plagues on this poor nation?
       To find an answer, we must turn to the story of Elijah the Prophet in the Bible.  Elijah had a vision at Mt. Sinai of a great wind, but the Lord was not in the wind.  Then he had a vision of an earthquake, but God was not in the earthquake.  Then he had a vision of a fire, but God was not in the fire.  Then Elijah heard a still small voice, and that was the voice of God.  (I Kings 19:11-12) 
       God is not in these natural events, but in the still small voice we hear after the event.  God is not in the earthquake.  Rather God is in the people who pulled together to rescue survivors, bring aid, and give hope to other human beings.  God is not in nature but in the voice of conscience.
       The Rabbis of the Talmud asked the question, if a person steals wheat, why does the wheat not grow?   Should the wheat punish the thief?   The answer they give is that nature runs according to its own laws.  Natural events are not punishments from God.  On the contrary, they are part of the laws God set into motion to allow the universe to function and life to evolve.  In fact, if not for earthquakes and other seismic activities, the earth would not have become fit for life.
       Much of what we humans see as destructive in nature is part of the overall plan of creation.  Genetic mutations can cause terrible diseases, but they also are the driving force behind evolution.  Species struggle to survive and some lose out in the struggle, but those more fit become better adapted to the environment.  Forest fires rage and burn out old trees and brush, opening the way for new plant life to grow.  And earthquakes and volcanoes are part of the dynamics of the earth that allowed the reshuffling of the land and life to come forth.
       The prophet Isaiah wrote long ago regarding God, "I form light and create darkness, make peace and create evil."  (Isaiah 45:7)  Perhaps this was in reaction to the ancient Gnostic belief in two gods, a god of good and a god of evil.  To Jews as well as Christians and Moslems, there is only one God responsible for the laws of nature.  As Alfred Tennyson wrote regarding nature, it is "red in tooth and claw."
       But the still small voice says that we humans do not have to passively accept what nature doles out.  We can perfect nature.  We can create a world where people do not need to suffer and die because of seismic events.  I pray, with God's inspiration, we are starting to do that in Haiti.