Although seismologists can tell us where an earthquake is likely to occur, rarely can they predict when it will occur.  Poor Ecuador.  Pummeled by a devastating earthquake a few days ago, and hit once more with an aftershock yesterday, Ecuador is struggling, struggling immensely, to cope.  So much loss, so much pain.  For those caught in it, the suffering is unfathomable.  Never had they before experienced such physical and spiritual deprivation.
     If you have the means, consider sending money to the many relief organizations that are already on the ground, trying their best to reach those hurt in urban areas as well as those in some very remote rural regions.  For the latter, help may be long in coming.  It's tragic, as they are often the poorest people in the country.
     A colleague of mine whose family still has many connections to people in the country, has talked me poignantly about the pain Ecuadorians are feeling.  "Nothing," she says, "has happened like this in Ecuador before.  No one was ready.  Everyone is hurting."
     Yes.  We may know what to expect, but we do not as often known when to expect it. The world is highly capricious, its systems on the one hand highly predictable, yet on the other hand deeply prone to recondite surprises.  So we ask:  what is God doing in all of this?  If he ordered the world, why would he order this?
     Unfortunately, this is an unanswerable question.  We end up either questioning God or ourselves.  And neither God nor we will be able to answer satisfactorily.  We're back to square one.  I wish I had some answers.  I wish I knew why.
     Despite everything, however, I will continue to seek solace.  Yet I will seek it not in the notion of a faceless and empty cosmos but, however difficult it may be, in the fact of an omniscient God.  I would rather know, eventually, than not.
     Pray for Ecuador.
     I'll be traveling for the remainder of this week.  See you on Monday:  thanks for reading!