God's work or the Devil's Playground?

So, I am going to ask the question that we've all asked and see if there is an answer.  Is God in the Tsunami, the earthquake, or apart from those events entirely?

I grew up thinking that God was a one-sided person.  He only did things that I found to be good.  He helped me get ice cream and chocolate chip cookies when I was 5, picked first for the team at age 10, a date at age 15, a home at age 20...but where was God when I flipped a three wheeler and nearly ended life too soon, or when the hurricanes ripped through Florida or New Orleans, or when a giant wall of water traveling 500 miles an hour blasts Japan killing thousands?

Is He there?

Because I don't think that the idea of footprints in the sand is very relevant to a hurting heart.  Because I don't believe that God waits for bad things to happen, then simply cradles us in His arms until we stop crying.  While that may be part of the story, I think He's at work before and during the tragedy. 

I find it interesting that the cliche remarks often have much to say, but we've over-used them and so they've lost their meaning and in the process, end up annoying us.  But I'll say it anyway.  I believe that everything does happen for a reason.  And God is orchestrating the grand symphony of events through an amazingly complex web.  I also do not believe the worst that can happen to me or anyone else, is death.  I believe the worst is not knowing our Lord.  Everything else is rather a moot point. 

So, although I grieve when trouble and difficulty come my way or affect a friend, or thousands around the world, I know God is at work.  And even though I may get disease or poverty or death, I know God is at work in my heart and the hearts of others bringing us back to Him.  Making a path available to anyone who would choose, to step out of the devil's playground and into the arms of our Lord.