God is the Same

Something I think about a lot is circumstances and how some people live and some people die. Some people have mostly good lives and some people suffer a lot. And none of it seems to really have much to do with how good or bad a person is or how much they "try" to do well in life. It seems so... patternless.

I listened to a story today about an article someone had written in the editorial section of a newspaper. It was praising God because her husband missed a flight and his life was spared when the flight crashed and all the passengers died. The next week a reply to the editorial: "My husband made that flight". And the Bible says that God is the same today,yesterday and forever (Hebrews 13:8). Sometimes it is so difficult to reconcile that with human suffering and the patternlessness that seems to accompany it. This is something I have long struggled with because I have such a sympathetic heart and I have also been through a lot in my young life. And honestly, I don't think I "deserved" it. No child deserves to be hurt. I have seen lots of pain and evilness and have experienced a lot at the hands of others. But God wants me to know this week that he is the same today, yesterday and forever and just because the world is fallen and bad things happen (because that is the consequence of sin) that He is the same.

I tend to think that there are parameters that God doesn't generally mess with. Not that he can't but he set the laws and rules into motion when he created this planet. He gave man free will and men use that free will. Sometimes they use it negatively and against others (think child abuse and murder and... really the list is infinite, it seems) and He also set the laws of this world into place which include rules like gravity and many other forces we deal with every day. And there is plague and famine and natural disaster that are just a part of sin entering the world. But I would appeal to many ideas (even some of some of my dearest friends) that God causes suffering or is even somehow indirectly responsible. The Bible says that EVERYTHING good is from God (James 1:17). That all blessings are from God.

So right now, I am going to take refuge in the fact that God IS the same today, tomorrow and forever. That the things going on in my life that are not good are not of God. That decisions my biological father made when I was a child... they weren't of God. He did not want small children to suffer. That was a mans decision. Out of that man's heart came wickedness... not out of God's heart. Hiding under the bed to get away from a belt, that is man's wickedness. God, thank you for being the same. Thank you for all things good in my life and for carrying me through the bad. Thank you for the blessings in my life. For my husband, my children, my family and friends. For all things good, I thank you.