Just Doesn't Make Sense!

It seems to me that sometimes things just don’t make sense.

For example, in our own cul-de-sac, we see tragedies all around us. One family has dealt with the death of a mother, the death of a stepfather, and rounds of extensive chemotherapy for the wife, who has an advanced case of breast cancer- all within three months time! Two houses away, a newborn comes into this world without bones or cartilage in one of her fingers. The parents are grief-stricken and feeling a measure of guilt, wondering if they did something wrong during the pregnancy. Of course, we all ask why.

I’m sure life may look the same in your world at times. Different people and different circumstances but the same questions and pain. It may even be your life and that of your family.

It is times like this that force me to consider what God is thinking. (Let me be honest here. Sometimes, it’s “What is God thinking?!?”) However, when I settle down and move away from angst and back into faith, I am reminded He knows better.

From the book of Isaiah, verses 55:8-9:
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,"
declares the LORD.
"As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Certainly, the birth of Jesus and the circumstances surrounding his life and ministry, gave folks a reason to pause. At the time, his birth brought very few folks on earth to celebration, but those beings in heaven rejoiced-and religious scholars ever since have wrestled with the nonsense of the Savior of the world being born into a common family. 

Some thirty years after His birth, the disciples wrestled with the craziness of Jesus being hung on the cross- only cursed men were treated this way! Yet in heaven, there had to be the mixture of somberness and rejoicing as Jesus successfully completed the mission the Father had given Him. At the Resurrection, God’s way was seen and understood better, only to be questioned once more at His Ascension. “What is God thinking?!?” must have been the question de jour after the Father revealed Jesus as the Savior only to take Him back to heaven so soon.

So, be encouraged. When things don’t make sense in your life, remember that God is still in control. “I the Lord do not change.” (Malachi 3:6). His ways are indeed higher than ours- so let’s be thankful we don’t have to rely on ourselves to make it in this life.