And Where Were You?

 

And Where Were You?

     My best friend’s mother took her own life.  We were in high school at the time.  It came as a surprise, kind of.  Her previous attempt was unsuccessful, so she tried again.

     Suicide can do weird things to a family.  Question marks float in the air sometimes never being resolved.  Guilt can come and rest on shoulders.  Plausible answers temporarily cover the shame.  “Oh, there must have been something wrong.”  Mummers about the town as you feel the starting eyes.  One question:  Where is God in all this?

     Pain can convince us that He has left.  Somehow His presence is sucked away and clouds are left about our heads.  Truth is, His temple is not based on our feelings.  If our feelings gave Him substance, then He would not be much of a god.

     He lives out of our reality not to be manipulated by it.  Not as a watchmaker, winding and watching, He decides to get involved.  He gets His hands dirty so to say because He loves.  So, why didn’t He get involved in her passing?

      God respects our autonomy.  Our dignity He grants in the form of freewill, enough to stop if need be.  How many times He tried to convince her otherwise, we are not certain.  We do know that He is a good God.  Her action was certainly not His will, yet He still loves.

      Is suicide a one-way ticket to Hell?  Termed another way, would Jesus walking here had compassion on her to reach out while she lived?  If she passed, is His hand somehow withdrawn?  He is the God of the living and the dead.  He does not change.  His mercy supersedes our decisions.  Not negating them, but rather by embellishing His grace He shows us His true character.

     As a Father to all, He has the pertinent heart.  Jesus knew depression.  Sorrows threatened to overtake Him as compassion rose up as a wave of want.  Seeing the need put Him in sobriety, scarcely to laugh when gazing about the multitude.  Other’s pain put His eyes toward the horizon.  How long would He be with them?  Knowing His primary job wasn’t to heal the outer, He sought the real medical procedure to heal from within.   That meant His blood.

     Will He hold our sins against us?  Yes.  Are unconfessed sins tallied at the doors of Heaven and shoved in our face?  You judge.  Does the God you know take pleasure in seeing His little ones squirm?  Does He delight in torture?

     He provides an escape from our own Hell.  If we would only understand His acceptance, we could then see the tear in His eye.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sojourning

  Sojourning Sojourn: a temporary stay Hebrews 11: 8  “ By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. 9  By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country , dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: 10  For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. ”      This indeed is a strange place.   I call my house T.L.A. or Temporary Living Accommodations.   In the Air Force, TLA housed those who were just passing through.   Like airman using the base as a skipping stone to get to their next assignment.   Hotels of sorts, they offered the comforts of home on a smaller scale.      We are a people set in Babylon.   Even in Sodom as we shut the doors as night.   This world so interferes wit...
Read more

The Church Picture

  The Church Picture 2 Samiuel 6: 20  “ Then David returned to bless his household. And Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, How glorious was the king of Israel to day, who uncovered himself to day in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovereth himself! 21  And David said unto Michal, It was before the  Lord , which chose me before thy father, and before all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the  Lord , over Israel: therefore will I play before the  Lord . 22  And I will yet be more vile than thus, and will be base in mine own sight: and of the maidservants which thou hast spoken of, of them shall I be had in honour. ” Revelation 4: 10  “ The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, 11  Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive ...
Read more

God's Successive Revelations

  God’s Successive Revelations Search Me diligently, and I will reveal Myself to you.      Yah, that sound like something God would say.   I understand He revealed the Trinity to us.   I plead ignorance in Church history.   Some theologians, perhaps 400 A.D. came upon this gem that we hold true today.   The idea of the rapture is new on the Church radar.   Late 1800’s?      What if God revealed His truth to His people in time?   Surely, Solomon was the wisest man in his day, but did he know about Pentecost?   Daniel, the far seer, was only shown glimpses.   What did he know of Peter and miracles in the temple?   A certain king discovered God’s truth again and that made for a reformation, but what did he know of the beast standing in the sea?   God gives insight in His time.      I have trained seven children.   As young  children, I did not flood them with...
Read more