The news out of Texas has been so tragic, where the results of flash floods on July 4 have claimed more than 100 lives. The Guadalupe River rose 26 feet in just 45 minutes, causing extensive damage and loss of life, including the deaths of 27 children and adults at Camp Mystic, a Christian Camp located near the river. Several people from the camp remain missing.
There’s such heartbreak—I’ve been trying to imagine if it were one of our daughters now, and even more so when they were children. Or how would any of us feel if one of these were our grandchild? May we better understand others through putting ourselves in their place, and pray accordingly. What a reminder that all of us live only by God’s mercy.
Matt Chandler shared these prayer points for those affected by the tragedy:
Pray for rescue: Ask God to guide search teams and protect the lives of those still missing. Pray for breakthroughs and safe returns.
Pray for grieving families: Especially families who lost children at Camp Mystic and beyond. Ask for the comfort that only Jesus can give.
Pray for the displaced: Many have lost homes and basic necessities. Pray for provision and resources: food, clean water, shelter.
Pray for first responders: Lift up firefighters, police, EMTs, and volunteers. Ask for strength, wisdom, and protection as they carry unimaginable weight day after day.
Pray for the Church: Pray that local churches would be the hands and feet of Jesus, offering help, hope, and healing in the days to come.
Pray for leadership: Ask God to give local and state officials wisdom to respond well now and prepare wisely for the future.
Pray for God’s presence: That even in the pain, people would experience the nearness of Christ and the hope of the gospel.
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. -Psalm 34:18
If you’d like to help those affected through giving, EPM recommends Samaritan’s Purse. Others have also recommended the disaster response of Convoy of Hope.
Several stories of heroism have already been circulating; 27-year-old father Julian Ryan died helping his family escape their flooding home. The director of Camp Mystic, Dick Eastland, died while trying to help campers. News Anchor Ryan Wolf writes, “His final act was one of courage, devotion, and love. For generations, Dick was the heart of Camp Mystic in Hunt, Texas. A steady presence, a father figure, a man of deep faith—he made every girl feel seen, safe, and cherished. He and his wife, Tweety, poured their souls into that camp since 1974. She survived. He did not.”
I believe that on the New Earth we will sit around dinner tables and campfires, hearing and telling stories of heroism that happened in this present world, the one that sometimes seemed so confusing to us. And we’ll get to meet many men, women, and children whom God used to give us little glimmers of His saving grace.
Yet the question that haunts us when something terrible like this happens is, “Why?” In 2010, after the 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Haiti, I was interviewed about If God Is Good, my big book on the problem of evil and suffering, and the interviewer asked: “How do you respond to people who say, ‘How could your God allow this to happen?’” Here’s what I shared:
Recently I was reflecting on a family I know that has faced what seems to be an inordinate amount of suffering. Only God knows why, but there is a doctrine of recompense that I think goes further than we realize, meaning that those who have experienced the worst suffering in this life will enjoy the most happiness in the life to come. Of course, we will all be 100% happy in Christ’s presence, but I think the capacity for joy on the New Earth is somehow expanded through the suffering of this present time that cannot be compared to the glory that will be revealed in us (Romans 8:18).
Jonathan Edwards and Charles Spurgeon both used an illustration of eternal rewards that two vessels can be filled with water, but one of the vessels may be much larger than the other. The idea is that our faithful service for the Lord, and our suffering in this life, can increase forever the capacity for joy that we will experience in the world to come.
Again, everyone will be filled with joy and 100% happy, and no one will lack delight, but for some who have endured such sufferings and losses in this life, perhaps their joy will be all the greater.
When I was writing If God Is Good, this really made sense to me because otherwise it’s hard to understand what seems like such unfairness due to the unequal suffering of God’s children in this life. But one day we will understand and see in retrospect that Romans 8:28 was true all along, and we will reap the eternal benefits of it.
