LEXINGTON, Kentucky (AP) — The sole survivor of a plane crash that killed 49 people near Lexington last week asked family members from his hospital bed, “Why did God do this to me?” but he hasn’t mentioned the crash, a close family friend said Wednesday.

James Polehinke, who was the flight’s co-pilot, can move only his head, and tears often well up in his eyes, said Antonio Cruz, Polehinke’s mother’s boyfriend. He said the 44-year-old had only gained consciousness on Tuesday.

Polehinke hasn’t mentioned the crash and doctors have encouraged family members not to ask him about it, Cruz told The Associated Press.

According to federal investigators, Polehinke was controlling Comair Flight 5191 when the regional jet took off from a too-short runway at Lexington’s Blue Grass Airport, crashed and caught fire in a nearby field on August 27. He was pulled to safety from the broken cockpit, but everyone else aboard the plane died in the crash and fire.

Polehinke is now off a ventilator but could be hospitalized for several more weeks with facial and spine fractures, a broken leg, foot and hand, three broken ribs, a broken breastbone and a collapsed lung.

He has asked about various family members, Cruz said, and has questioned his relationship with God.

One of the first full sentences he said after regaining consciousness was, “Why did God do this to me?” Cruz said.

Cruz said Polehinke’s mother, Honey Jackson, told him: “It was not God. It was just an accident.”

It is tempting for pastors to shrink back in fear from such questions and allow compromise for the sake of cheap and thoughtless peace, just as it is tempting for us to coldly speak truth clinically without feeling the pain of the one suffering. What I love so very much about Jesus is the incredible and winsome convergence of grace and truth that He so often displayed to the wonderment of His audience. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14). “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (John 1:17). He was “full,” meaning He was replete or complete, covered over by “grace and truth.” We are told that “grace and truth” came through Jesus Christ. It was realized and shown through Jesus, so that to understand grace and truth we must first realize that it is found in the person of Christ and He is the very channel by which it comes to us. How is it that grace and truth are often seen as “never the twain shall meet” but in Jesus they reside simultaneously without minimizing one for the other? It is who Christ is. He is “grace and truth” incarnate.

What comfort is there when we give advice like the mother of this man “It is not God. It was just an accident?” I’m not sure which is worse, that God had complete sovereignty over such a crash for a purpose that we do not fully understand, or that God was an absentee landlord and was preoccupied with the singing angels so that this slipped by without His knowledge. Worse yet, perhaps He did notice but didn’t have the power to stop such a horrific event. I guess I would rather tell this man that there are no maverick molecules, no autonomous atoms, and not even a speck of dust dances apart from the Fathers will. That our God, glorious as He is, chose to save you out of the many that died a fiery and horrific death. He spared your life by His sovereign will and chose that you would live for how ever many days He graciously grants to you so that you might hear the words of Christ- “Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near” (Isaiah 55:6). “Whatever the LORD pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps” (Psalm 135:6). Therefore my son, take this time to consider His patience and longsuffering toward you. Take this time and let the full weight of the knowledge of what you deserved serve as a catalyst for you to cry out in mercy to a God who saves sinners and never turns away a contrite heart which seeks peace everlasting.

My son, it was no accident that this event happened. God has given you something that 49 other passengers did not receive- opportunity. He was under no obligation to spare your life, yet He did. What will you do? Will you question the one who holds your heart and breath in His hands? Or will you consider the loving grace of the Son offered freely to those who will simply believe that by faith He is sufficient to save even a man that would question His kindness. What will you do with Jesus my son? Your question has an answer, and it is found in the person of Jesus Christ.

Austrian Discusses Years of Captivity
Sep 06 3:06 PM US/Eastern

By WILLIAM J. KOLE
Associated Press Writer

VIENNA, Austria

The young Austrian woman imprisoned for 8 1/2 years in an underground cell “thought only of escape” during her entire ordeal, and once tried to jump out of her captor’s car, she told a magazine and a newspaper in interviews published Wednesday.
Natascha Kampusch, who bolted to freedom on Aug. 23 while her captor busied himself with a cell phone call, told the Austrian weekly magazine News she repeatedly asked herself: “Why, of all the many millions of people, did this have to happen to me?”

This is a good exercise for all of us. Think about this young victims question, and formulate an answer. Think of this young lady visiting your church only to hear you say that God is sovereign over all things, which prompts her to seek out a conversation with you to understand what possible reason could God have for such a horrific 8 1/2 years of pain and misery. What would you say to her that would be both grace and truth. That would be faithful to the truth of God and His nature, character, and attributes, and yet with the hope of the gospel soaking this truth so that it is not some abstract concept.

Feel free to post a response.