God playing favorites

I've been thinking a lot lately. Our favorite local news station has a website: komotv.com and they've started allowing comments on the stories. There was a story in the last week about a guy who was in a plane crash that survived with minor burns while the other 6 people on the plane were killed. He said something to the effect that while he wasn't religious, that God was with him. The comments were filled with people either cursing God for playing favorites and KOMO's insensitivity for making a story of the miraculous survival of this man or well-meaning religious people with scriptures who were being insensitive, but probably not meaning to.

I didn't contribute, but I couldn't help but think that no one that I read got it right. (I didn't read all the comments because I was getting upset by it all.) I also heard an interview with a man who wrote a book about FDR's first 100 days in presidential office, and he made the comment that FDR had been a cocky, disconnected rich guy up until the point that he got polio and was paralyzed for life. He realized through his suffering the suffering of others and gained empathy that guided him the rest of his life.

How are these two thoughts linked? I don't know about God playing favorites and sparing one person while dooming another, but it seems that we can let bad things make us better people. The guy who survived the plane crash may have something ahead of him that this is uniquely preparing for. Likewise, the family and friends of those killed may be able to look back on this sad event, not as a good thing ever, but as a turning point in their lives that puts them on a new and better path. I know of many stories where evil or pain has been important to a person's life story.

Another thing I've been thinking is that every person on earth will be exposed to tragedy; either through evil or disease, and always through death. We cannot escape it with anyone in our lives: parents, spouses, children, friends, or ourselves. God does not spare anyone. (OK, OK, there was Enoch and Elijah, but we don't know what else they experienced that wasn't recorded.) I believe that sometimes God can extend our lives for some reason, but I don't think it's ever for our own benefit, but for his own glory. Even Christ's miracles were "signs so that you may believe". There were many people whom Christ did not heal. He was known to leave towns where the crowds of sick people became too thick for him to be able to preach. God loves us and helps us, but we aren't the center of His universe.