The hard question

I’ve often heard the common question: “Why does God let bad things happen?” and have wrestled with the answer to that question myself.

But it takes on a whole new meaning when your nine-year-old granddaughter, bereft of her baby brother who died when she was six, asks it.

Sure enough, this popped up unexpectedly on a car ride home from a fun day out with the family. Lots of cousins, hiking, picnic, wild ponies, etc. We were bantering in the car about God, what we would ask him and Emma piped in with, “I would ask him why he lets bad things happen, like when George died.”

Gracious. That is a big question for a child.

After responding with, “that is a good question, Emma,” we sat quietly for a minute. Her ten-year-old cousin, Esther was in the back seat with her and I heard her mumble, “hmmmm” with a shrug.

After a few minutes, I felt like I had a bit of a response, maybe not an actual answer. I think there are many reasons that God allows suffering and much has been written about that, but what popped into my mind was - we might be asking the wrong question.

The right question might be, “why does God let good things happen?”

The world is a broken place, and with sin wrecking it all until Jesus comes back and sets it all right again, perhaps our expectation should be that everything will always be broken - sickness, thorns, mosquitoes, pain, relational brokenness, weeds, poisonous snakes, divorce, abuse, injury, death.

So when we enjoy beauty, kindness, love, peace, health, abundance, and all manner of good, we should be praising God for his graciousness to us! Every sunrise, every breath, every friend, every hug should be considered a miracle, since all is lost and broken as a result of sin.

I also think the reason any of these good things exist is because God is merciful, and all of us who carry the Holy Spirit within us, take him with us everywhere we go, and into every conversation we have, and through all of our actions. We have the opportunity to bring life into dead situations, by our presence, our words, and our actions.

So Emma, I hope you know how much God loves you, and has grieved your great loss. He is good, and he wants us to spread his goodness to our broken world.