These are the questions whispered to God by the mother in the movie Tree Of Life following the death of her son at the outset of the movie. God answers as he did Job 38:4, 7, "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?...and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" (This is the passage shown at the very beginning the film.) All of Job 38 is a response to Job's questions in Job 31:3: "Is not calamity for the unrighteous, and disaster for the workers of iniqutiy?" In other words, shouldn't bad things only happen to bad people? Why should they happen to good people?
In the Biblical response, God has some questions of his own: Why do you think you are good? Who do you think you are? God reminds us that he created all that is and his ways are far above our own. The movie, Tree Of Life, does a great job showing this, and also shows that God cares for us. But it doesn't go far enough (just as Job ends well, but it is not the end of Biblical revelation).
The mother in the movie, who represents grace, points to a beautiful sky and tells her young son, "That's where God lives." Yes and no. As long as our Lord remains only a distant God who dwells in some remote heavens, then we cannot understand why calamity should befall the righteous, why bad things should happen to "good" people.
But the Biblical metanarrative is an unfolding of Immanuel ("God is with us"). He doesn't remain far away, but descends and condescends to his people. In Genesis he creates, and then relates to Adam. When man rebels (both Adam and in Noah's time), God preserves men and creates a nation to be a blessing to all nations (through Abraham). To his people, he reveals his power, his law and his character. The Living God who created all that is dwells with his people himself, leading them as a cloud by day and a fire by night. He dwells with his people in the Ark of the Covenant, the tabernacle and the temple. The Spirit of God rushes upon certain men for specific tasks. And yet, through the prophet Isaiah, the Lord promises a time when a virgin will bear a son named Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14), a time when God would dwell with his people in a new and special way. This is what Christmas is about, God coming to be with his people, living a perfect and humble life, and dying a humiliating death on our behalf. So when we look at the evil and suffering around us, we may not have all of the answers, but we know there is one who has done something about it. Jesus is the final word about who God is (Hebrews 1:1-4). The God of the universe entered into our evil and overcame it. This is the gospel.
And still it's not the end of the unfolding of Immanuel. Jesus rose from the grave! He did not leave his people as orphans (John 14:18). He sent his Spirit into the world to dwell with his people, living inside of them as the Spirit of God lived in the temple in the Old Testament (1 Corinthians 6:19). God is still with us; he is in us if we trust in Christ.
And this isn't even the full good news of Immanuel. We have a promise that one day the Lord will dwell with his people in another new and special way. The apostle John describes the scene in Revelation: "And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away (Rev. 21:3-4)...And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives its light, and its lamp is the Lamb" (Rev. 21:22-23).
God doesn't just live far away from us in the sky. Where was he when loss or suffering happened. He was here. He has been here, he is here, and he will be here again. He has proved his love forever when he died on a cross for us. He became dirty so that we could be clean. He entered into our mess to destroy our mess so that he could dwell with us in perfect peace forever. This is a God we can trust, a God we can love.
William Lloyd wrote in the hymn, "My Times are in Thy Hand,"
My times are in thy hand,
Jesus, the crucified;
Those hands my cruel sins had pierced
Are now my guard and guide.
