Thought for the Day, 4 July 2008

The Rev Roy Jenkins

It was a moment of the most intense drama. 'We are the national army, and you are all free,' a soldier told the 15 hostages.

Ingrid Betancourt, the most celebrated among them, described their ecstasy with unforgettable vividness. 'The helicopter almost fell. We started jumping, we screamed, we cried, we hugged - we couldn't believe it. God carried out this miracle.'

She'd been held by Colombia's Farc guerrillas for more than six years since being kidnapped during her campaign for the country's presidency, and a video showing her looking wasted and ill had fuelled fears that she was close to death.

Tasting freedom again for the first time, she's radiant, and concerned to express gratitude in two directions - to the army, and to God.

Praise for the soldiers is understandable. The Colombian military's fiercest critics could hardly fail to admire the operation which snatched these prisoners, without a shot being fired. What effect it will have on the fate of the many hundreds still being held hostage across the country will remain cause for concern, but the very audacity of this rescue deserves the plaudits.

But thanks to God? Some, I know, will struggle with that.

What of all those who haven't been freed? What of their families, their hopes, their broken lives? To which we may add as many victims of the world's injustices as we choose. Isn't a God who's supposed to be loving concerned about children starving to death, or trafficked across continents, or riddled with cancer? Why no rescue for them, no answers to the heart-wrenching cries of those being destroyed themselves as they watch their suffering?

But Ingrid Betancourt is not proposing any theory for addressing the classical problem of evil. She is simply expressing and interpreting her own experience. 'I prayed so much,' she said. 'God carried out this miracle.'

Of course that still leaves as many questions as it answers - why her, why not others? And that's not only an issue for those who proclaim that prayer is simply talking to yourself or that miracles don't happen because we understand the way the universe works. It troubles praying believers as well.

Jesus told his followers to pray to a Father who wanted only their good; but he also made it clear that taking his way would involve suffering. He spoke of bringing liberty to captives, of rescuing many, but only at the cost of his own life.

There is no simple formula on offer - just an invitation to trust even through doubt and confusion; to trust, in particular, that when prayer seems unanswered and the worst is happening nothing can separate from his love.

Ingrid Betancourt's son described her release as 'an immense joy, an indescribable joy'. I'm happy to share the celebration; because puzzling though it can seem, such joy is, said Jesus, what God intends for everyone.