A friend who is an Anglican bishop once told me: 'If it wasn't for Jesus Christ I would believe in God but I wouldn't trust him.'

God, in Christ, is a suffering God. God suffers in, with and for his creation. He is not aloof and distanced from suffering. Paul says it is because of the suffering that God endured in not sparing his own Son that we can be confident that nothing can ever separate us from the love (suffering) of God.

So the question shifts from 'Why does God allow his creatures to suffer?' to 'Why does God allow himself and his creatures to suffer?'

The notion that only good things happen to good people was put to rest when we hung Jesus on the cross. Jesus who died for us invites us to ask whether we will trust his God to be our God, in joy or pain, in good times and when life is tough. God will not allow anything worse to happen to us than happened to Jesus.

Lord, I pray for strength to endure the horrors of this time and faith to trust in your everlasting mercy. You do not provide answers, but the wounds of Jesus for my consolation. Your unseen but ever-real presence comforts and guides me through the darkness and the pain. Amen.