Understanding

Bad things happen.

Family gets sick. Jobs get terminated. Tests are failed. Money runs out. Trust is broken. People we love die.

One of the biggest questions I hear, and have, about God is why He lets these things happen.

Once upon a time, Heather was having a little bit of a bad day, and she was sorta beating me up on the couch. Someone else stepped in to help, and they both turned at the same time, and Heather got an elbow in the face. It was not intentional, and it was not a form of retaliation or punishment for her behavior. But, Heather didn't know that.  And no matter how hard we tried, we could not explain that to her. The look of horror and shame in her eyes was heartbreaking, and I don't think my cohort has ever felt worse about anything.

We spent a good long while discussing how terrible it was that we couldn't explain to Heather that it was an accident.

We don't know what Heather was thinking during the incident, but I'd guess she was wondering why she got hurt, and why I didn't stop it.

Sometimes bad things happen, and we just can't do anything about it. Contrary to some beliefs, God does not hold the strings to the puppet people of the world, making them do whatever He wants. He gave us free will, and with that also comes the freedom to experience bad things.  But I’d guarantee that His hearts breaks along with ours, and He wishes He could simply force on us the peace that He offers.

Because we are human and He is God, we don't have the ability to comprehend the how’s and why’s of the bad things that happen in life and He does.  But that doesn't mean that He has purposely done or allowed these things to hurt us. And it doesn't mean He can't use these things to work out good things in our lives or character.


Yesterday, I took Heather to the Dr, and she had to get 2 shots. When the nurse came in with the needles and began looking at her arm, she freaked out, and we had to hold her down. Again, the look in her eyes was heartbreaking.  It was an abused, "why-won't-you-help-me, please-make-them-stop" look. 


And once again, I couldn't explain to her what was going on, and why I was allowing her to feel pain. This time, it was on purpose, and it was for her benefit.  But there was no way to could make her understand that.
There are times when God allows bad things to happen, but because they will be good for us in the end. The end of a relationship we never should have started. The termination of the job that's taking more and more time away from our families. The consequence of a sin that we willfully took part in.  Bad things, that we need, for our benefit.

There's one bad thing that God allowed, for our benefit, that we didn't have to suffer for.

Redemption.
Forgiveness.
The Cross.
And He spent 66 books trying to explain it to us.


Brooke