Lord, In Your Mercy, Hear Our Prayer

The last few minutes of Spanair’s flight JK5002 are still unclear. Official reports now say that 153 lives were lost. And miraculously 19 lives were spared. The fractured new reports suggest that the victims had little opportunity to escape and most have died as a result of the incinerating fire from an aircraft that was full of jet fuel on take off.

We offer our prayers and supplications for the passengers, crew, and emergency rescue teams. But we should also pray for the friends and relatives and all whose lives will change as a result of this tragedy.

Over the coming days news reports will include flight manifests containing names and destinations, but they won’t provide glimpses on the lives of the passengers. We know there were at least twenty children and two babies on board – their full lives ahead of them, lovingly embraced by all the hope and excitement of their young parents. And we know there were passengers from numerous countries, particularly as the airline shared their inventory with Lufthansa. Each soul on board was loved and needed by someone – and by God.

These names and many others will be called out tomorrow and for many tomorrows to come, not only by news reporters, but by the families and loved ones who must continue their lives, tainted by the mental vision of the crash and flames. And let us pray for the gate agent, who will surely relive the memory of each and every passenger, as she checked them in for their flight, looked into their eyes and wished them a good journey. Those faces will remain with her for the rest of her life.

The horror of this disaster, as we imagine the last terrifying moments of this fateful flight, obscures the fact that millions of people fly everyday in thousands of planes safely and without incident. But this tragedy and every other similar tragedy challenges anybody who has ever prayed – and that’s probably most of us since praying isn’t limited to ‘signed-up’ believers.

It’s natural for us to wonder what was God thinking as He heard the pleas of these and other terrified victims? And for those of us who've ever felt that God has from time to time answered our own prayers, we're in the double bind of explaining why He came to our aid and not to theirs. Our doubts are fuelled by having a picture of God dwelling in some trouble-free paradise watching us sweating it out on this war-torn earth.

Jesus said ‘Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them falls to earth without the Father.’ It could invoke the vision of God himself falling from the skies to the earth to suffer alongside all His creatures. That’s a very different picture from the one of God as the detached problem-solver.

An experienced mother once told me that she reckoned she’d had her appendix out four times; Once for herself and once for each of her children. Such is the power of empathy, the power of compassionate imagination you can so strongly empathise with someone you love that you feel the pain yourself.

If God is able to identify so strongly with all His creatures, then in a sense He must never be without pain. Far from inhabiting a trouble-free paradise, He must be totally and always acquainted with our grief and sorrows. Which is the state in which we find Him when we turn to Him in prayer.

Christians and others long for that day when God will wipe every tear from our eyes, when death will be no more and mourning, tears, and pain will be things of the past. If we who suffer from time to time long for this, how much more must God, who we believe carries the suffering of the whole world, ache for such a day.

As we offer our prayers for all those who have died, let us find comfort in the knowledge that those passengers have been received by a loving and life-giving God.

And in this knowledge, we are reminded that there is life immortal that shall survive the grave and their imperishable spirit is forever with the Lord.

Our prayers are with all who are affected by this tragedy.

Loving and compassionate Lord, we pray for all those who have called out to You and all who have suffered and all who have died. Receive them into Your arms. We ask that you embrace anyone who has been touched by this tragedy. Give strength and comfort to those who are bereaved and to the rescue workers, officials, and public whose lives have been affected. And for all who travel, we pray that You place Your gentle breath upon each of them, that they may always feel the warmth of Your love and protection. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen

Verdes pastos él me hace reposar y adonde brota agua fresca me conduce. Fortalece mi alma, por el camino del bueno me dirige por amor de su nombre. Aunque pase por quebradas muy oscuras no tengo ningún mal, porque tú estás conmigo, tu bastón y tu vara me protegen. Me sirves a la mesa frente a mis adversarios, con aceites tú perfumas mi cabeza y rellenas mi copa. Me acompaña tu bondad y tu favour mientras dura mi vida, mi mansion será la casa del Señor por largo, largo tiempo. Salmos 23

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