GOD IS IN HIS HEAVEN AND...

 

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I stopped by my local supermarket yesterday to buy some blueberry muffins, dogfood and sausage and egg croissants. And as I was checking out, and preparing to insert my credit card in the pay slot, the male cashier smiled and spoke.

“How are you today?”

Always looking for the remotest opportunity to witness the love of God, and having recognized this “open door,” I smiled and replied,

“God is in His heaven, and all is right with the world!”

Something about this exchange caused me to think I was interacting with a fellow believer, and he responded with,

“Well, you got the first half right!”

He might just as well have said,

“Yes, God is definitely in His heaven, but… all is NOT right with the world.”

As I write these words, the world is engaged in a horribly unjust war in Europe. And while it is not a world war, and only involves the countries of Russia and Ukraine, 98 percent of the world (given the vote of condemnation in the U.N., and the withering financial sanctions imposed on Russia) stand with Ukraine.

“God is in His Heaven.”

Yes, He is.

But to the agnostic who acknowledges that God quite probably exists, his or her rejoinder is, (excuse the four letter abbreviation since this is the way they often speak),

“But if God is in His heaven, and He is in control, why the h_ _ _ isn’t everything right with the world?” (and) “Why doesn’t He do something about this terrible horde of Russian troops who have rained terror on Ukraine?”

Pt. 2

…“but all is NOT right with the world.”

No, my friend. Honestly, if I was God, I would undoubtedly not act and react the way He does; (nor if you are honest would you).

We would immediately do the Sodom and Gomorrah thing or the First Born Sons of Egypt thing on the roughly 200,000 Russian troops in Ukraine, and a man with the initials V.P., who are at this very moment blowing that country and its people to smithereens.

I can’t account for it. And to be fair, it makes me very anxious and very angry.

However… (and it is a huge “however”) I once heard a line in a movie titled “Rudy” which comes as close as any explanation, and yet still leaves us looking for a much better answer.

“I know there’s one God… and I’m not Him.”

I think the closest we will ever come on this side of heaven to answers lies in countless scriptural accounts beginning with our first parents in the Book of Genesis who succumbed to momentary satisfaction, bad choices and abject sin, and were forced to bear the consequences.

Free Will

God simply doesn’t make automatons who mindlessly obey His every whim, nor does He always act and react the way we think He ought to. And for whatever reason, He doesn’t think He owes us an explanation.

All is NOT right with the world.

And innocent people have suffered and died from the beginning. And I cannot comprehend it, nor can I accept it. However, when it is all said and done, I must acknowledge the first half of the previous statement.

God is, indeed, in His heaven, and it is not all said and done, and all we know and see is momentary, and there will be “a great gettin up morning” when those who once troubled this old earth will be called to account. (This is one thing which the Almighty has seen fit to promise us).

 

Until then, He calls good men to do good and stand against evil, and He will continue to work in the affairs of men in ways that we cannot always comprehend.

by William McDonald, PhD