Dallas Jenkins, director of “The Chosen,” shared a message on Facebook about the ongoing wildfires in Southern California on Thursday.
He started the 11-minute video clip by providing an update on the safety of cast and crew members for “The Chosen” who reside in Los Angeles.
Several people involved with “The Chosen” have been evacuated and all are currently safe, he said.
“All of our cast and crew who live out there are safe. ... A few of them have lost their homes. We have a couple cast members who have lost their homes. We have a couple agents who have lost their homes. Some friends, co-workers and what not who have lost their homes. The majority have not lost their homes and everyone is safe. No one has been injured or has lost a loved one,” Jenkins said.
“We of course appreciate your prayers for those who are displaced,” he added.
More than 153,000 people in LA County are under evacuation orders, reports CNN. At least 10,000 properties have been destroyed by the ongoing wildfires and the death toll has reached at least 10.
“Where is God in the LA fires right now?” Jenkins asked at the start of his video message. “I know that so many people are wrestling with that (question). What is happening in LA is apocalyptic, it is unprecedented.”
Jenkins shared that the LA neighborhood of Tyler Thompson, a co-writer for “The Chosen,” was almost entirely burned, but noted that Thompson’s home survived.
Jenkins said this occurrence made him consider why some homes have been spared and others have not.
He related this question to “The Chosen.”
“In ‘The Chosen,’ we have leaned into that question quite a bit,” Jenkins said. “When Jesus was on Earth he healed so many people, and yet clearly in the course of the Bible and the course of history ... God would spare some and not others and that is still the case today.”
He continued, “Some people die when others don’t. Some people are healed when others aren’t. Some people experience trials when others don’t. And there seems to be no rhyme or reason to it.
“God is on a different economy of time and space and sees the full picture that we don’t see.”
Jenkins added, “He clearly has a bigger picture happening. He is painting a big picture, a mosaic that we cannot see clearly because we are only looking at what’s right in front of us. We don’t have the ability to step back and see the entire mosaic”
Jenkins admitted that he does not have a clear answer for “why some people are healed and not others,” but said, “that’s where faith comes in.”
He concluded his message by saying, “I hope that you are praying that God feels near to those who are broken hearted, because he is there.
“If you are in LA and if you are suffering from this, we love you. We stand with you, we kneel for you.”