This is my response to a Christian friend of mine who posted on her Facebook page, "Why did this happen?" as her response to the earthquake in Haiti. It's not an exhaustive explanation to be sure, but I hope it helps you sort through this, especially if you have wondered 'Why' yourself...
Here's my response:
It all began in Genesis 3. When mankind fell, so did all of creation...a creation that 'groans' until things will be restored. We can be assured of one thing, though, and that is that God will use this to reveal His glory.
The very fact that we even ask 'Why?' actually serves as evidence that inherently, we KNOW that things like this aren't 'right.' That earthquakes aren't SUPPOSED to happen and that they are a wrong imposed on us...this is, in kind of a reverse way, proof that there is a 'Supreme Good,' which is the essence of who God is and on the flip side, a 'Supreme Evil' which is bent on destroying humanity-and the is the adversary-our Enemy.
When things such as this happen, and within hours, PLANE LOADS of Christians leave their families to go help and missionaries refuse to leave the chaos when they have safe havens back in the US and elsewhere, God is glorified and so is the Church.
I'm pretty sure that when your kids got vaccinated for polio, they probably looked at you as if you had betrayed them and that the Doctor was a tool of evil-they couldn't have possibly understood that you had their best interests in mind...they wouldn't even have understood if you had told them, for that matter. I believe it is like this with us and God. ...
Things are not right-but the Bible HAS told us why, and to go a step beyond my analogy, has given His people marching orders in how we are to respond. He has also told us it's ok to cry out "WHY?" (...just look at Psalms, Lamentations, Jeremiah, or the writings of Paul to see that...pain and questioning God is a common theme in the Bible).
What matters is our response-again-it's a fallen situation that is in need of redemption. The short term redemption is Christians responding rightly. The long term redemption will be the thousands of unknown stories that will one day revealed and those that will share in Christ's glory as a RESULT of this tragedy, some of which I have already seen on the news as miraculous stories have begun to emerge.
I know this doesn't make it easy or take away the temporary pain of this, but it does help us to better understand God's panoramic view vs. our limited, myopic vision.
Added: shortly after I posted this, I saw this as a featured story on MSN's homepage: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34866253/ns/world_news-haiti_earthquake/?GT1=43001
