I heard something tragic the other day.

My friend's husband, who battled drug addiction, had begun using again. Unwilling to pay closer attention, my friend came home from work one day and found him dead on the floor from an overdose.

The trauma sent her over the edge. So she went out and got rip-roaring drunk. Driving home with her young daughter, she got into a wreck - and killed her only child.

What can be said in the face of something so horrific?

Why does stuff like this happen?

How do we answer the eventual question: where was God?

We don’t have to live long on this earth to hear about, or even experience, tragedies like this. They happen all the time. They're part of the human experience. 

How does a God who created such beauty as we find in nature, music, and the human soul also create or permit unfathomable horror, violence and just plain evil? As we know there are many theories and no one agrees on just one.

But what this Sunday, Trinity Sunday, does, is give us insight into the nature of God and help us endure tragedies like this.

When Christians say God is ’Trinity’ - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - they do so as proverbial blind men feeling different parts of the elephant: while a complete picture is not possible, we can make a couple of solid observations.

God as Father means God is powerful, it reminds us that God created everything and understands everything even when we don’t.

God as Son shows God has empathy for the human condition. God is not unaware or faraway, but comes down from heaven to endure tragedy with us.

And God as Holy Spirit tells us that God wants to be with us at all times -  to comfort, inspire, guide, and protect.

While I’ll never now why my friend - or anyone else - has to face tragedies - what I do know is that my loss to understand doesn’t negate my ability to comprehend at least some things: that God understands, God cares, and God is present with us.

We endure tragedies better when we understand that God is not part of the problem but part of the solution.