There’s so many things in the world that we don’t understand. We get answers to our questions, but those answers aren’t satisfying. If You are so loving, why is there a hell? Why is there sin? Why is there suffering? What’s heaven going to be like? etc. We try to wrap our brains around this life and we come up short. We don’t have all the answers and we never will in this life, but You has a plan, we are part of Your story, and we don’t know the ending while we are in the middle.
People wonder why You allows bad things to happens and people complain that life’s unfair. But we’re only looking at what happens on page 27 of Your grand story and we don’t know what happens on page 371 when the story is complete. There is a purpose behind all the characters, but in the moment of suspense, it’s hard to see that there could possibly be more to the story that we don’t quite understand.
Why is it that when a person shoots another it is the person who is blamed for the killing and not the gun or the bullet which actually did the killing? People say that’s obvious because it was the person who is living and breathing that committed the act, not the inanimate gun. However, it seems that You can avoid blame in situations, like Job, where You allow havoc in abundance. It doesn’t make sense to us. Why are you not blamed for sin if You allow it knowing full well the outcome of sin? Again, it goes back to the story and there is a bigger picture that we cannot see and understand, and the suffering that happens now is part of a bigger glory later. There is a final redemption where every tear will be wiped from every eye (what Greg, the pastor at Manna referred to over and over yesterday).
In Job, You and Satan have a bet. Satan says that people only worship you because you give them good things. If you weren’t so good to people then they would not be so keen on trusting You. You tell Satan, I don’t think that’s true, and to take Your servant Job and test the theory out. You tell Satan that he can destroy Job’s life. And the whole thing plays out how you said it would. So Job’s life is wrecked and his friends tell him he did something to deserve this. His wife tells him to just curse God and die. And Job still will not curse You. But Job doesn’t ever get to know your reasoning. Even at the end, he doesn’t get to know why he had to suffer.
Your answer to his question is this: “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand... Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him!” And to that Job responds finally, “I am unworthy, how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth... I know that you can do all things and no plan of Yours can be thwarted.” Job didn’t know Your plan; he never got to know your plan, but he trusted you.
It is all part of your story and some day we’ll be witnesses of your final glory, but that day is not yet. We are on page 27 of 371. We see only in part now, but eventually it will all make sense. C.S. Lewis explained it as such. Say you were trying to describe to a little kid what sex was, and obviously, he didn’t understand. It doesn’t make sense to him why that is at all pleasurable or fulfilling. In fact, he’s so confused and thinks that’s so far off base that he asks, “will there be candy too?” His question is laughable. I’ve never had sex, but I know that sex is much more pleasurable than candy. But to the child, candy is awesome and there isn’t anything better.
This earth is like the candy, we experience what we know and think that there’s no way things could ever get better. But You know much more than we do, and you have a grand plan that will be better than any candy we could have ever imagined. But we can’t jump ahead of the story. We just have to wait and see how everything plays out. So God, help me to trust you, even when I’m not satisfied with the current page. Help me to realize that there is a bigger picture. Help me to understand your redemptive plan even in the pain. Like Job, let me seek you instead of curse you. Let me trust your plan instead of doubt it. And keep me centered on you.
