Where are you, God?

A week has passed since the town of Bicester was shaken to the core by tragedy. The lives of three courageous local people were lost as a fire took hold at Bicester Motion. For some this is a personal grief – the families, friends, colleagues and other contacts of Martyn Sadler, Jennie Logan and David Chester are facing the terrible sorrow of sudden bereavement. For others this sends a shockwave, bringing to mind other experiences of loss and trauma we may have suffered and disrupting our assumptions about what should and should not be.

There is a sense of powerlessness and helplessness in the face of circumstances that cannot be changed but nevertheless we gather, because this is something we can do.

We stand together, we mark our mutual care, support and love for one another in our presence, in the laying of flowers, in the messages in books of condolence.

The psalms, ancient texts in the bible, give us the language of suffering. Psalm 22 is one of those laments where the psalmist cries out to God – Jesus cried out these words as he hung on the cross - ‘My God, my God why have you forsaken me?’ It continues, ‘Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest.’ It’s full of honest pain. God can bear it.

In despair, we cling on to the hope revealed through the resurrection of Jesus and the promise that neither height nor depth can separate us from the love of God.