Choris Hippeis

“Why is a loving and powerful God, if He exists, a silent spectator to such pain and suffering around us?”

A Broken Hand and a Hard Question

A couple of weeks ago, I was helping my daughter Sanaya with her homework when my 9-year-old, Talia, walked in crying. She showed me her right hand, apologizing as she explained she had fallen off her bike. A baseball-sized swelling on her limp wrist made it clear: it was a broken bone.

At the hospital, the x-ray confirmed a complete fracture of both the radius and ulna—uncommon in children. On the way, Talia grew angry at God: “Why didn’t He protect me? Doesn’t He care?”

As Miriyam and I listened, we gently suggested perhaps God was teaching her to heed her mother’s caution. That moment reminded me of my own night of unbearable pain years earlier, when the thought of God was the farthest from my mind.

Wrestling with Pain and God’s Silence

When suffering strikes, we are tempted to conclude that God is either cruel or absent. History only deepens this struggle.

In the movie Amistad, Africans kidnapped into slavery endured unspeakable cruelty—shackled, starved, and even thrown overboard alive. How could God remain silent?

Even in Scripture, the Israelites groaned in Egyptian slavery for over 400 years before God declared that their cries had reached His ears (Exodus 3). Why so long? Why the silence?

A Lesson from Marathon

History offers another picture. At the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC, the Athenians saw a signal: “Choris Hippeis” — “the cavalry are away.” Without the Persian cavalry, Athens gained victory against overwhelming odds. General Miltiades later dedicated his helmet to Zeus as thanksgiving.

But unlike Miltiades’ helmet, worn and fragile today in an Olympia museum, God offers us an imperishable protection. As Paul writes, believers have the helmet of salvation (Ephesians 6:17)—a gift from God that secures us forever.

God’s Right Hand is Never Away

When Talia and I struggle with our faith, we must remember this:
It is never “choris hippeis” with God. His cavalry is not away. His right hand is always present—whether our hand is strong or broken, steady or limp.

God does not abandon us in suffering. Instead, He walks with us through it, using even our pain to draw us closer to His glory.