Whose Fault is This

I'm not thoroughly out to answer the question... but I am out to clear something up.

I've heard more times than I care to mention over the past few days statements such as:
"Where was God?" and...
"It's time we put God back in schools" and... I've seen these ridiculous ideas that imply that God did nothing because we've locked Him out.

It's people, rightfully, trying to place blame somewhere.  We do it to feel like we have control over the situation.  (Though it is quite obvious that we do not have control since such tragedies have occurred in our country.)  So, it's understandable as to why people would want to find an individual or idea as to where to place blame.

But, friends, let me petition you with this idea:  Contrary to our narcissistic belief that God obeys us, or that He dwells where and when we allow Him to, God is God.  He can and will be wherever He so chooses to be.  In our public schools, despite any 'laws' on the books, in prisons, in agnostic / atheists homes... etc.  Anywhere.  Anytime.  He is still in control. 

I think it is easier for us to claim God wasn't there that day at Sandy Hook Elementary... or in the movie theater in Aurora... or in Columbine so many years ago.  It's easy to place blame on law makers who have shoved Him out as if He were a human being capable of being bullied around.  It's easier, in our minds that have only a small bit of understanding, than to say that God was there... and to feel that He did not intervene.

I'm not going Westboro Baptist on you.  Trust me.  I'm not saying that God thought those innocent children deserved the lot they were handed that day, but ask me if I think God was in that school, and I'll answer 'yes' without wavering 

Had He not been in that school who knows how many more lives could have been taken.
Had He not been in that school, we wouldn't see the heroic stories of teachers sacrificing themselves.  Despite popular belief, the need to sacrifice yourself for another individual isn't exactly a trait we are born with.
He was there in the answered prayers of survivors.  Parents.  Administrators.

And whether we like it or not... even in situations like these... God is still in control.

Scripture tells us that God makes the sun rise on the evil and the good, the rain come on the just and the unjust.  (Matthew 5:45)  Jesus says that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him (Matthew 28:18).  Even in a public school in the midst of evil. 

So - let's stop being ridiculous, acting as if we can point God in and out of where we may, and let's place blame where blame is due.

Thousands of years ago there was a garden.  God created one man and one woman who were perfect.  He gave them reign of the Garden with only one rule, do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  And they blew it.  The evil that was passed on from that one act has entered the human race and is passed down, and passed down, and passed down.  It lives in us all, and it is only due to the love of God - who sacrificed His own Son, mind you - that we can be forgiven and live apart from the evil that, by birth, roots in us.

The blame isn't on God, by means of "you allowed this to happen!" or by means of "He passively exited the building."  The blame is on us... it's on our sinful nature.  It's on the evil that entered the world with one bite of fruit.  God is still the victor!  He is still in control!  And He still is offering us a way out, a way home.