Jesus knows a secret

Fifteen years ago Mike Turner was hiking in the Wyoming wilderness. He came across a field of boulders next to a lake. He was jumping from boulder to boulder when one moved. His feet slipped and he began to slide down. The boulder fell over and came to rest against another one, pinning Mike by his legs between two boulders. They came together in such a way as not to injure his legs but hold them securely, his feet dangling above the ground. He couldn’t free himself. He was alone in a desolate place.

He spent the next nine days dying of hypothermia and dehydration, with a clear mountain lake 30 feet away. His death left his wife and children bereaved. Mike Turner was a Presbyterian minister who loved walking alone in wild places. He wrote a Job-like journal while dying, pouring out his lament and praise.

I wish God had altered the laws of physics and freed Mike Turner from the boulder’s grip, but that didn’t happen. I wish God would alter the laws of biochemistry and free bodies in the grip of cancer, or minds afflicted with dementia, but that doesn’t happen either, at least for particular people I know. God lets natural processes alone, even when they harm and kill. I suspect God cannot alter the habits of nature constantly, saving everyone from accident or disease, because we need nature to be dependable in other ways. I suspect becoming Creator entailed a renunciation of power in God, like becoming a parent involves a renunciation of power for human beings.