It's easy for us to be bitter and blame God for everything we don't understand or can't comprehend or justify. And it is easy to blame everything on God, because then you can stay angry, bitter, and bewildered about the nature and purpose of your own life. If I ascend into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in hell, you are there. Even the darkness is not dark to thee.
Death is the great equalizer.
Not because death makes us all equal, but because death laughs at our pretensions in this life to be anything else but equal. It is when these terrible things happen that we remember and hold dearly to this life. Tragedy offers us the opportunity to find new meaning in what is and, most of all, to remember what is important in this life. I am sure many of you watched the opening of the Olympics on Friday night. It was wonderful and moving to watch the 11,000 athletes walk into the stadium, members of 197 countries.