It is important to be honest, admiting we don’t have perfect answers; asking, along with Archbishop Justin Welby, ‘God, where are you in all this?’ Encourage your young people to ask their honest questions:
• Why would God let this happen?
• Why did God save some people and not others?
• Did God just forget to look after France?
Allow them to voice concerns, air doubts and verbalise their frustration. Read Isaiah 49:14, ‘Jerusalem says, “The Lord has deserted us; the Lord has forgotten us.”’ Ask the group to compare Jerusalem’s response to Paris’. Now read God’s response (Isaiah 49: 15-16): ‘Never! Can a mother forget her nursing child? Can she feel no love for the child she has borne? Even if that were possible, I would not forget you! I have written your name on the palms of my hands. Always in my mind is a picture of Jerusalem’s walls in ruins.’ Paris is in ruins. And yet, God sees the ruins; he has not forgotten. Ask:
• Does this make you feel any better?
• How does it feel to be held by God?
• What does it mean to have your name written on his hands?
• What should our response to radical terrorism be?
• How would Jesus treat ISIS?
The Bible condemns evil. It also depicts a god of justice who punishes evil and fights for the downtrodden. We are promised that ultimate justice will one day be enacted but that it is not ours to sanction. Although it goes against everything in us, we are called to forgive these awful atrocities and to pray. To pray for Paris, pray for the ruined lives, but to also pray for ISIS: that they will encounter the crucified Messiah and be utterly transformed by him.
Get your young people to think about their biggest fears then share Bill Gaither’s lyrics: ‘Because he lives, I can face tomorrow. Because he lives, all fear is gone. Because I know he holds the future and life is worth the living, just because he lives.’ Or, to quote the great philosopher of our age, Justin Bieber, ‘Even in the midst of doubt, life is worth the living.’
Where was God in Paris? He was in the city centre, in the midst of the pain, suffering with those who suffered; Jesus weeps. God has not forgotten Paris and he will not forget your young people.
