Where is God In This?

That is what I am sure many were thinking after the cowardly terrorist attacks in Paris.  Also anytime when bad things happen to good people, we wonder how God could allow that, if we do indeed believe in God and His inherent goodness.

I heard recently that terrorist attacks that the terrorist thinks of as successful, or in other words, where people died and people were hurt and upset, that the mindset of the terrorist is that Allah has confirmed He is with them by that success.  Not that the terrorist is deterred by a lack of so called success, thinking maybe Allah was against it all...

Strange isn't it?  That is like a rapist thinking God condoned the rape since he did the rape and was not yet convicted.  

But on the other hand, I believe it would be wrong if the person raped believed God did not exist or did not care about her (or him) because the rape happened.

So where IS God in all this?

One therapist who helps people with PTSD asks his patients to ask God to show them where He was during their trauma.  Often times, they get a sense of where God was, and it helps them handle the trauma they went through, even so much as to allow them to face it again. 

One example was given that stuck with me.
This woman was pregnant, and her family, and particularly her boyfriend pressured her to have an abortion.  (Abortion does not equal pro-choice always, consider China's one child law that was just changed to two, there are many traumatized women and families in China due to this). 
Anyway, this woman was not real sure about having an abortion, but everyone around her seemed to be, so she consented to do it. 

For whatever reason, and I am sure most abortion clinics take pains to avoid this happening, but after the unborn child was removed, dead from her womb, they put it on the counter and left for a minute, and she looked over and could see it.

To her, it did not look like a tumor or a blob of flesh, it looked like a baby, HER baby, with cute little fingers and toes.  But it was dead.

And she was traumatized by that image, that moment.  For years and years. 

So she sought therapy, and this therapist asked her to pray and ask, "God, where were you then?" 

She prayed, and she had sort of a vision I guess, or an imagining, what ever you want to call it, but it gave her much peace and a new perspective.

She saw Jesus Christ come into the room and look at the dead baby.  He picked her up and cuddled her, and the baby smiled and cooed happily.  Jesus looked at the baby lovingly, and then he looked at the mother, also with eyes filled with love.  he had no trace of judging or condemning, only love and compassion. 
Then he smiled and carried the baby away. 

The "vision" gave her a sense that God was indeed there, even though it was traumatic for her at the time, she saw her baby was okay in the arms of Jesus.  She also saw that God did not judge her for having the abortion.  She had peace about it after years of anxiety.

In my last journal, I shared how a French husband and father dealt so gracefully at the loss of his beautiful wife at the hands of terrorists in Paris.  He vowed that they would not be given the gift of his hatred, he would remain free and happy.  

I pray that as things happen to unsettle us, we can have a perspective that is free of hate and fear, but that we would see that God knows, God sees, and He will make all things beautiful in His time.

On a lighter note, I am still taking suggestions for my diorama title.  To clarify, I would like the title to address the issue of how Gorosaurus got to be in the scene when the dub in the movie said it was Baragon.  Open this and read the description for details:
Also, here is a teaser before I unveil the whole diorama, will post it soon!

 And now, lets have a happy little feature of delightful arts, shall we?  And, to my fellow USA-ers, Happy Thanksgiving!