What if God was one of us?

It’s been a week filled with bad news.

Working in the media sometimes means you’re addicted to knowing what happens next. So there I was, on Thursday afternoon scrolling through my Facebook news feed when I saw a friend post a photo of a collapsed wall.

If you live in Melbourne, you’re more than likely to know what happened. A wall in Carlton collapsed, apparently due to strong winds, killing two people and critically injuring a third. As the events began to unfold, more details came to light – one of the deceased was actually shielding his sister. The other was a woman in her thirties.

In an instant, they were gone – just for being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

I was rather distraught at the news because I’ve walked past that wall numerous times. It is located just opposite the Meld Magazine office, where I sometimes write. It could have been anyone I know. It could have been me, but it wasn’t.

And other bad news started flooding in. People back home desperately needing prayer, waiting on a medical miracle.

Time slips through our fingers, and sometimes the best we can do is pray.

I wonder why these things happen. Why bad things happen to people. Ordinary people. I’m looking for someone to blame.

It’s Easter weekend, and it was Good Friday yesterday. Today is Silent Saturday (or Holy Saturday), the one day people believed Jesus was dead and gone forever. The hope of the world. Their saviour. My saviour.

I don’t have all the answers. God does, but He sometimes keeps silent – perhaps for my benefit. Sometimes it’s better not to know.

Yet, that little ray of hope that rises in the midst of confusion, pain, and darkness is unexplainable. The hope against all odds.

Too much to make sense of it all
I know that Your love breaks my fall
The scandal of grace, You died in my place
So my soul will live

Death, where is your sting?
Your power is as dead as my sin
The cross has taught me to live
And mercy, my heart now to sing

The day and its trouble shall come
I know that Your strength is enough
The scandal of grace, You died in my place
So my soul will live

Oh to be like You
Give all I have just to know You
Jesus, there’s no one besides You
Forever the hope in my heart

Those lyrics, written so beautifully by Hillsong United, remind me that God was indeed one of us. He knows what it’s like to hurt. To be confused. To die seemingly in vain.

The risen King Himself knows that light will pierce through the darkness. He knows that Love always, always prevails, in the face of circumstance.

It might take awhile for me to catch up, but I know there is hope, because He is the hope of all.

Happy Easter, everyone. x