Acts of God

"Acts of God" is the term that insurance companies use to describe catastrophes such as those our recent mission team to Alabama witnessed. I have done disaster response to 3 of these "acts". Hurricanes in Florida, flood is nashville and now tornadoes in Alabama. The power that created these indescribable messes amazes me. 
I'm inclined to look at all of these through the lens of the spiritual. Some ask, "Why would God do this?" I've been through this thought process and here's where I ended up:
God created nature, the force behind the tornadoes, hurricanes and floods. Much the same, He created people (Adam and Eve). He created it all perfect. But for perfect love to exist it requires choice. Choice on the part of we as people. If He "made" us love Him, it wouldn't be love. It would be instinct or mechanical.  
Love requires a conscious effort on our part to choose to be in a relationship with God, or not. 
So, there it is. A perfect world. One rule from the Creator, "Don't eat this fruit or you'll die." All is well until Adam and Eve ate the fruit, tainting the relationship. They did indeed die. First spiritually and then physically. 
That spiritual death introduced something to the world, sin. Sin brought some bedfellows along: death, destruction, suffering and the like. 
Sin introduced a war amongst God's creation. A war culminating in everything becoming flawed, people and nature alike. 
Does God "act" through these things? Absolutely. But not in the way some might think. He doesn't act in the cause but rather the effect. It's God that causes unconcerned people to load up and go help those whom they've never met. It's God that causes people to give money to help those who are without homes. It's the force of God that causes the positive effects, the materialization of His love in places that might not otherwise have experienced it. 
The bottom line is... God is the peace after the storm.