Where is God in all this? Even cartoonists are addressing the issue. In a recent Family Circus, Commercial Appeal, 7 -28-23) Bill Keane is reading Humpty Dumpty to his small son. As his father comes to the close and the fall… ““All the kings horses and all the king’s men” his son asks, “Where was his ‘guardian angel?“
In a far different way the poet wrote,
“You, who keep account of crises and transition in this life, sit down the first time nature says plain “No” to some “Yes” in you, and walks over you, in gorgeous sweeps of scorn.” (Elizabeth Barrett Browning)
Most of us don’t live long before nature says “No” to some “Yes” in us, and “walks over you in gorgeous sweeps of scorn.”
In the past few weeks, the son of dear friends has struggled between life and death over an accidental drug overdose. Many are asking, “Where is God in all this?”
I doubt if there is anything more prevalent and personal in our on-going life. We don’t live long before some “Humpty, Humpty, falls, something happens and we ask, “Where is God in all this?”
It’s not an academic question. What is the role a sovereign God, who has given us freedom, have in our daily lives? To what degree is our life simply shaped by our human freedom? Where was his “Guardian Angel” when Humpty Dumpty came “falling down?”
God is sovereign and God is active. Put that truth together with the notion of human freedom and responsibility and you have a complex and challenging issues. Exhaustive scholarly volumes have been written on this theme. I am bold to simply state my bottom line thoughts as I have reflected these past weeks with my friends in their son’s life and death struggle.
First, we simply must accept the fact there is a tragic dimension to life.
Two, however we explain it, whatever reasons and rational theories we may evolve, when we press the issue, we have to conclude that, because God has given us freedom, and while God may not cause the things that happens to us, He allows them.
So, while my heart is still hurting over the suffering of my friends, I have gone one step further. This is a dramatic step, a step of faith that is essential if we are going to be triumphant when nature says “No” to some “Yes” within us. That revelation of faith is that God doesn’t get rid of suffering. He uses suffering for our good and his glory.
I lodge two sentences in your mind as support for this truth…maybe just another way of saying it. One, life is not fair, but life isn’t God. Two, everything that happens is not the will of God, but God has a will in everything that happens.