Its been a while

We have recently returned from Blenheim where we spent Christmas and New Year with David's family. We had a great time even though the weather wasn't so crash hot. While we were there the biggest natural disaster in modern history occurred, a Tsunami that hit Indonesia, Thailand, India, Bangladesh, Shrilanka and even Africa. Over 150,000 people were killed and people are still being found. It has raised many interesting conversations as to where does God fit into all this, people who don't even acknowledge him blame him.
We sat one night and discussed some issues that made it hard for people to understand how a loving God could wipe out so many people.

I believe that there are basically two answers to this in relation to where God is during this time.

1: It boils down to your understanding of Genesis and the fall of man. God made us with free choice and we chose to disobey God and so came about death and destruction and occurrences in our Earth that would not have happened if we had been obedient. [ I say we because we are all as guilty of sin as Adam and Eve.] God did not intend in his original plan for our world to be how it is today. Some may say, "why didn't God just make us obey him" but think about this, how much better is it for a child to choose to love and obey a parent that being made to. It makes it very special when someone chooses to love you. God didn't want puppets, he wanted to be worshipped freely.

This brings me now to the events in Indonesia. God has the power to stop any major natural disaster but "allows" it due to our own choices and disobedience that was from the beginning of time. God did not intend this to happen but we chose to turn our world into a place of death and destruction.

2: The other answer could be that God had had enough of Idle worship and other abominations in these countries and decided that enough is enough. This is something that I cannot read Gods mind on but I believe could be another way to interpret what went on. Throughout the Bible God has destroyed cities and even wiped out all the Earth apart from Noah and his family as he could no longer tolerate their evil ways.