Real Christians have at least learned better than to pretend that there is no God. And yet many of them have found a new batch of deceptions to cling to, one of the most absurd of which is the assumption that human comfort is at the top of God’s priority list. To these people, God is a benevolent Santa Claus figure who can’t bear the thought of humans suffering. Well, this really isn’t who God is, and nothing awakens us to His comfort with our pain faster than seeing Him striking us down with some horrific disease which He Himself has invented. As we find ourselves breaking out in hideous rashes and experiencing severe pain and suffering, we are forced to question what God’s priorities really are. If pampering us isn’t at the top of His list, what is?God is His own first priority. He demands to be revered by the creatures He has made. If we refuse to do this, He knows how to drive us to our knees by terrorizing us with suffering that is beyond our ability to control.We don’t have to like God in order to revere Him. When you stay back from an electric fence that is buzzing with life, it is because you revere the power that it has to kill you. Reverence is a respect which comes from acknowledging that something or someone is superior to you. No one is more superior than God. He created everything that exists, and He could uncreate it all with a single word. He has created the world that we can see with our eyes, as well as a whole other world that we can only catch glimpses of through the lenses of powerful microscopes. When we try to figure out the way this creation works, we end up with far more questions than answers, and this should result in reverence for God’s superior wisdom and genius. When we see how swiftly a microscopic animal can shut down our bodies and kill us, we should respond with sincere reverence for God’s awesome power. Everywhere we look, God is demonstrating His immeasurable superiority over us, yet we have the gall to mock and dismiss Him. Bring on the Ebola virus. Perhaps increased fatalities will help us to rethink this delusion that God only cares about blessing us. On the contrary, He finds it quite pleasing to strike us down in large numbers in order to drive us back into alignment with His priorities. God wants to be revered. When we revere God properly, we stop treating Him like some vending machine of blessings that we can manipulate into giving us what we want. God does not exist to give us what we want, and if killing off our loved ones is going to help us realize this, then that is what He will do.