His Big Mysteries...

This morning's devotional reading (1 Kings 13) sparked quite a bit of contemplation today regarding God's mysterious ways and purposes. 

A "man of God" (prophet) died in this passage because he believed and acted on a lie told to him by another "man of God" resulting in what seemed to be his exceptionally cruel demise. 

Let's face it, there are some things in the Bible that make you go, huh? Really?  Why? I call these things S.U.'s-- Sovereignty Unsolvables.  To me, they are reminders that God is big, He has big ways, and I'm never going to understand some of them this side of eternity.

Today, just as when this passage was written, things happen that don't make sense. Kids get cancer. Tornadoes level homes. Terrorists bomb. Cars crash. Mud slides. Fires rage. Wickedly evil people prosper. And we scratch our heads, cry...and look up.

Recently, a friend and I had a conversation about her friend who struggles spiritually because she just cannot completely trust a God who would allow awful things to happen. It seems my friend's friend endured a secret  horror that haunts her every day, making it reportedly impossible for her to reconcile how God allowed "it" to happen if he is "good".

That conversation prompted me to think about what the world would be like if God did prevent every sickness, kill every terrorist, evil person and child molester before they victimized anyone, redirect traffic so that no collisions or accidents ever happened, keep all populated areas free from floods, muds, damaging winds, and waves. What if He made this one big happy, problem-free planet? Who among us would ever look up?  (By the way, He did that originally, it was called the Garden of Eden and "we" blew it!)  But for the sake of this subject, if things were still garden perfect thanks to him, we'd probably rarely give him a grateful nod. I'm guessing we'd be so wrapped up in our good lives that we'd do what we're prone to do anyway--forget or ignore. 

My husband and I brought children into this world. To the best of our ability we nurtured them, provided for them, and protected them. And not to pat ourselves on the back or anything, but we sacrificed for them. We didn't always do what they wanted us to do, but we always did what we believed was best for them, and sometimes, that was painful--to them and to us. Today though, they are people we love spending time with and it is almost unbearable to imagine having a broken relationship with either of them.

I have to believe that the great and awesome God who created us (and loves us more than we can fathom) feels that way about us. In His sovereignty He acts and reacts according to what is ultimately best (in a big picture kind of way that we may never understand this side of heaven). In spite of the bad things that happen because this world is in a fallen state (of our own doing) one thing is certain according to scripture: He wants each of His children to experience the love and healing He offers that can overcome every tragedy and travesty associated with our sin-stained world.

In this life, there are (and will always be) unaswered whys and unhappy endings, but there is one more big S.U. that proves our God is good--all the time. He gave a Sacrifice Unrivaled when He sent His Son, Jesus, to pay the price for our sin. His own son suffered a cruel demise to give us (for free) eternal life. What an amazing, undeserved gift!

Today, I am thankful for a sovereign Lord who knows best, loves most and is big enough to allow me to ask questions and admit that there are things I don't like sometimes. His big mysteries are a part of a bigger plan that works for the good (sometimes eternal rather than temporal good -Romans 8:28-) of everyone who loves him.