Did God Rescue the Miners?

Much has been written about the rescue of the 33 miners from Chile yesterday.  I could not seem to pull myself away from the TV reports and did cheer a little each time another one came up from below.  I great sigh of relief went up all over the world as the last miner was retrieved, followed by the 6 men who went down to save them.  All are out and a cap has been placed on the hole that was used to bring them up.

Someone asked a question last night about God’s role in all of this.  Did God rescue the miners?  I would say if your answer to the question is yes, then you would have to be willing to say that God allowed them to be trapped in the first place.  I do not believe either of these statements are true.

First off God does not allow or allow things to happen in the same sense the we humans think about things.  Is there a plan? Yes.  Is God up there moving us around like pieces on a large chess board?  No.  I would say that God gave the miners the strength that they needed to withstand what they went through whilst they were in captivity.  I would say, the prayers of the people all over the world gave them strength as well.  Perhaps God had something to do with the knowledge the guys had who figured out how to rescue them but that is open to interpretation.

When we pray we pray that God’s will is done in the situation we are praying about.  Heal so and so if it be your will, rescue this one, if it be your will and so on.  How can we explain that God rescued these guys but not others?  Part of the mystery I guess.

As an Orthodox Christian I do not believe that God is up there pulling the strings.  God created all and set it in motion, He gave us free will to make choices, He sends people in our path to guide us, He wants us all to come to the love and knowledge of Him, but he does not force Himself on us.  We are free to choose or not.

So did God rescue the miners?  I don’t think He was running the equipment, but I do think He was involved in some mysterious way.

Your thoughts?