Leighton Sterling watches flood waters along the Guadalupe River in Kerrville, Texas.

The devastation and heartbreak in Kerrville, Texas cannot be measured. It is simply too much.

Reports are not always consistent. Some say that 21 children have died, others report 27 or 28. According to FoxWeather, 94 people have died in the floods. DailyMail reports at least 41 more are still missing, including 11 children.

The floods came in the middle of the night. At least three warnings were sent out by the National Weather Service (NWS). The first warning came out at 1:18pm on Thursday, July 3, warning of heavy rainfall expected in Kerr County, which is on a flood plane. Other warnings came out at 1:14am on Friday, and another at 4:03am, but because the floods came in the middle of the night, many people were asleep and did not hear or see those warnings. As such, the flood took many by surprise, to terrible, deadly consequences.

The faces of the victims speak of happy, active people living successful lives that have meaning for them. They are the kind of people you might invite to dinner. The children look like the kind of girls you would like as friends for your girls. Sisters with their arms around each other. Smiling faces filled with braces, or baby teeth spread wide apart. Their eyes are open, filled with delight, and with love looking back at the one taking the picture.

They are also the kind of people who suddenly become heroes in a flash when the danger is immediate and overwhelming. The young man who broke a window so his family could escape, cutting an artery in the process and dying of loss of blood. The camp owner who tried valiently to save the girls at Camp Mystic, and lost his life in the effort. “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (Jn 15:13).

Then there are the professional rescuers, whom we don’t always think of as heroes because they’ve chosen this profession and have been trained for it. But all that means is that they’ve chosen the profession of hero. They are well trained, but well trained to do the most dangerous work imaginable. I am glad they are well trained. I am glad they chose the profession of hero. That they’ve chosen this profession hardly mitigates the dangers they face, and the fact that they’re well-trained hardly mitigates the risks they take to their own lives in trying to save the lives of others. God bless them!

Of course, because this is America in 2025, everyone everywhere wants to make every disaster about politics. As Rahm Emanuel, Chief of Staff for Obama and potential cadidate for Chicago mayor, often quipped, “Never let a serious crisis go to waste.” As such, people are quick to politicize the Kerrville flood, even as the bodies are only being recovered, and even as people are still missing. Democrats, taking Emanuel’s advice are, of course, blaming Trump. As such, a tragedy that ought to unite us is being exploited to further divide us. Why do they do this? Do they believe that Trump is such a monster that focusing right now on saving more lives, finding the missing, and comforting grieving families should be put on the back burner, while criticizing Trump at every opportunity is made the priority? Short answer: Yes. Long answer: Yes. Yes, they do.

Some are saying that this is because of climate change, and that Trump doesn’t believe in climate change. So, Trump’s at fault. But the measures the world has taken and could still take to stop climate change would not impact climate change so quickly as to stop something like this. We’re hoping to reduce carbon output (the reduction of which the U. S. leads the world, btw) in hopes of reducing the temperature of the Earth by less than a couple of degrees or so over a century. Even if this was caused by climate change, nothing Trump or any other president did over the previous twenty-five years would have impacted the climate quick enough to stop this sort of weather event. Kerr County is well known for its propensity for floods. Kerr County and Camp Mystic suffered a similar flood disaster in 1987. In that flood, ten children were killed. The death toll was lower likely because the flood came in the early morning rather than in the middle of the night, so many were able to evacuate by vehicles. I don’t recall anyone blaming Ronald Reagan for that disaster.

Politicans and others also blame Trump, insisting that this catastrophe was caused by his budget and personnel cuts to NWS. They claim there isn’t enough staffing at NWS, so there weren’t enough people to monitor the situation and get the warnings out. But the budget cuts to NWS don’t begin until 2026, and the NWS meteorologist Jason Runyen made clear that the New Braunfels office, which serves Kerr County and the surrounding area, had extra staff on duty because of the storm and to put out the warnings. Rosie O’Donnell, all the way from her new home in Ireland, accused Trump of “gut[ing] all of the early warning systems and the weathering forecast abilities of the government.” But that’s just not true. It is true that Kerr County has no unified emergency response system to alert residents of a disaster. Judge Rob Kelly of Kerr County said that one was proposed, but “the public reeled at the cost.”

At least 94 people, probably more, have died in this horrific flood. Why? Camp Mystic is a Chritian camp. It has served Kerr County and the surrounding area for a hundred years. Wouldn’t God protect it from such a disaster? Similar questions were asked in Lisbon, Portugal on All Saints’ Day in 1755 when the city was struck by a massive (some say 8.5 or higher) earthquake that destroyed much of the city, either by the earthquake itself, or by the tsunami that followed, or by the fires started by the candles lit for the holy day. Why would God allow such a catastrophe, especially on a day set aside to honor his most faithful servants?

God created the world to abide by certain laws of nature. It is part of God’s permissive will to allow nature to run its course according to the laws of nature, without interferring. This is not to say that God doesn’t know how the world’s progress will play out. It is to say that He does not necessarily direct the precise movements of every creek, the growth of every tree, or the path by which every snowflake falls. God allows nature to run its course according to the laws of nature that He created. This includes what we regard as disasters, such as tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, fires, and floods. We view these as disasters only when life is at stake because of them. There are many, I suspect, natural “disasters,” like those listed above, that occur in places with a low population, or even no population. We don’t call these disasters because they don’t threaten or takes lives.

There are numerous accounts of miraculous protection by God of individuals or groups caught up in natural disasters. There are various biblical accounts of God intervening in controlling nature for the sake of His people. God divided the waters of the Red Sea to allow the Hebrews to escape the Pharoah’s army (Ex 14:10-22). God paused the movement of the Sun and Moon in the heavens so that Joshua might have time to destroy the Amorites (Josh 10). Jesus calmed the waters of the Sea of Galilee in response to the fear of the Apostles in the midst of a fierce storm (Mk 4:35-41). More contemporary examples include the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima, where God caused the Sun to change colors, spin, and dive toward Earth before returning to its normal position. The ground at Fatima, as well as the people, were soaked by a torrential downpour that precided the miracle. Afterwards, the ground and the people were stone dry. Fifty to seventy thousand people witnessed this miracle. Even atheist journalists who were sent to report on the failure of Our Blessed Mother to produce the promised miracle were stunned at what they witnessed. At Dunkirk in northern France, during World War II, the German army was quickly advancing toward the beaches where over 300 thousand Allied troops, mostly British, were trapped, sitting ducks for the Germans. Then, unexpectedly, Hitler ordered them to stop their advance, giving the responsibility of destroying the Allied troops at Dunkird to the Luftwaffe. But a wind sent smoke over the beaches, hiding the Allied troops, and cloud cover made it impossible for the Luftwaffe to locate and destroy them, as well as the hodgepodge of boats and ships that carried out the evacuation. Many, including Churchill, called Dunkirk a miracle, considering the improbable circumstances that came together to allow for the successful evacuation of so many troops.

Even in consideration of these examples, however, it is clear that God does not intervene ordinarily in the playing out of the laws of nature to save those in distress, even His own people. How can we explain why the living God of the universe moves one way here, and another way there? We cannot. We cannot pretend to answer for God’s designs, His plans, or His ways. The Book of the Prophet Isaiah says: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways — oracle of the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, my thoughts higher than your thoughts” (Is 55:8-9).

But is this fair? Is this just? Of course, it is. It is not for us to question God. It is for us to submit to His will and conform our wills according to His. What is the point of being angry at God? Will that bring our loved ones back or stop the next tragedy? Are we so pumped up with ourselves that we think we can actually punish God by refusing Him our worship because of our sufferings? We see dimly, though we think we see clearly. We see partially, though we think we see it all. We are like those dwelling on a massive mountain. We are well familiar with our part of the mountain, but we have no idea what’s going on on the other side. Only God sees the whole picture. God dwells outside of time, in eternity, so all moments are now. God can see already – in fact from the beginning of time – the suffering caused by the Kerrville flood, but also the redemption of those who strove heroically to save the lives of others and the reward He has prepared for the innocents who died. Only He knows the final outcome of these events. Does that make it easier? Of course not. But it may, in time, give us some perspective on the wisdom of God and how foolish we are in questioning His motives and actions. What else is there to do? Despair? That’s what the atheists would have us do. Disconnect emotionally from all others, because we know that, eventually, it’s going to end in pain. I’ve said this before: both the atheist and the believer find themselves in similar dark, cavernous tunnels. Both find themselves crawling through, hardly making progress against the sharp rocks and slippery path each trods. The only contrast between the two is that, for the believer, there’s a light at the end of his tunnel. And that light makes all the difference.

We have, basically, two choices when faced with tragedy: despair or hope. We can drown ourselves in despair, becoming captives of desolation, darkness, and pessimism that our lives will ever be set aright. I recall watching an interview of a woman who had been a victim of child rape. I can hardly think of anything more horrible. But here she was in her forties, and the horror she experienced as a child still defined her life. Or, we can choose hope, and the reclamation it offers. What do we reclaim when we choose hope? We reclaim our lives. Out of the ashes of tragedy, we rise again to live again, looking to the promise of the Resurrection to bring hope to our hearts and confidence in the promises of Jesus. Jesus does not promise that he will return all as it was before any tragedy. But He does promise that death has been conquered, and that the future belongs to the living.

Be Christ for all. Bring Christ to all. See Christ in all.