(67) The Theological Mystery Of Camp Mystic – Rod Dreher’s Diary
There is nothing to be gained from speculating about why God allowed the wall of water to sweep those children away. There is no satisfactory answer. Is anyone made better off by concluding that God does not exist, and that suffering is ultimately meaningless?
About meaning: telling those grieving families that God Must Have A Reason only intensifies their pain. If an angel of the Lord showed up at their front door with a parchment explaining why their daughters had to drown in the darkness to achieve a higher purpose, would that somehow make it okay even if it were true?
It is better to imagine that the suffering of those little girls on that hellish night, and the pain that their families will bear for the rest of their lives, can be redeemed by joining it to the pain of the Saviour who shared their suffering. If the witnesses to the Resurrection had all decided to keep the good news to themselves, and not to tell a soul, then Jesus would have suffered and died in vain. But they did not. They proclaimed the good news: that Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life.
This good news changed the world. These days, to prepare for my next book, I am reading and re-reading books of history, talking about how the Christian revolution turned the Greco-Roman world upside down. Because those little Texas girls were Christians, and came from Christian families, I anticipate that we will see the Holy Spirit move profoundly and publicly in the lives of those grief-stricken mothers and fathers who, despite their shock and pain, know that their Redeemer, and the Redeemer of their dead children, lives. Because He lives, so do their lost children, in eternity, where they will all be reunited one day.
In the meantime, let us love our broken neighbors, with our broken hearts. What else is there? Rage will not reverse the flow of time, or of the Guadalupe River. Despair only ensures the victory of death. There is another Way.