Suffering and God

The headlines this week brought news that terrorists in a Bombay rail blast killed 190. As I thought of the victims and their families a quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer in 1942 came to mind. He said in a letter to his twin sister “that suffering and God are not a contradiction but rather a unity.” God suffers over Bombay. God is near to suffering and loss. “To find God in this way,” Bonhoeffer said, “gives peace and rest and a strong and courageous heart.”