Everyone’s heard of the miracle of the plane incident in which the plane carrying 155 people hit a flock of geese and almost crashed but miraculously the pilot diverted the plane into the Hudson River. No human lives were lost. This leads me to question why God would want to sacrifice the lives of innocent animals (geese). My husband says this was a random incident and God had no hand in it. I say God has everything planned in advance whether it is a plane crash or a tsunami. Will you settle this argument?
Why did Jesus sacrifice a herd of swine when demons he was casting out asked to be allowed to take the swine instead (Matthew 8:28-33)? One possible answer might be found in verse 33:
The herdsmen fled, and going into the city they told everything, and what had happened to the demoniacs.
Because of this incident, the herdsmen who owned the swine told all they met about what had happened, thus testifying to Jesus’ mission. Perhaps the “sacrifice” of the geese enabled a jaded world to once more see the hand of God at work in the world.
That said, I would disagree with the idea that “God has everything planned in advance whether it is a plane crash or a tsunami.” God knows all that will happen because he is omniscient, but that does not mean that he actively causes everything to happen, if we mean by that that he hurls geese into planes, planes into buildings, and storms into cities. Sometimes events happen simply because it is either a matter of human free will or within the possibility of the nature of creation or created beings.
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