Beyond the Questions

Zelie Guerin Martin could have chosen to believe that God was not fair. She was born in 1831 in Alencon,France, and described her childhood as "dismal", recounting how she received little love or affection from her parents. After she married her husband, Louis, she began what started as happy life as a wife and mother. But tragedy soon struck when four of her nine children died within three years of one another. She lamented, "I haven't a penny's worth of courage." She could have questioned God's love and goodness in the midst of such raw pain. Instead, she looked beyond her present suffering toward a hopeful eternity. The book of Job says, "Man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble" (Job 14:1). Zelie echoed Job's outlook when her life was derailed by death. "My children were not lost forever;life is short and full of miseries, and we shall find our little ones again up above."
    The death of Job's children and the loss of all he possessed were inexplicable from a human perspective. It just didn't seem fair. Job longed to argue with God and plead his case, but he realized that God "is not a man like me that I might answer him" (Job 9:32).  He longed for someone to "arbitrate"  between them.
   As mere mortals, it's simply not possible to look beyond heaven's veil to see why God is God, and we are not. And let's face it:Sometimes the things that happen don't seem fair. But thankfully, God has sent an arbitrator in the form of his Son, Jesus Christ, to mediate between humans and our holy God. The Bible tells us that Jesus "is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them" (Hebrews 7:25).
   Though we may suffer temporarily on this earth-and no one is denying the intense grief we experience as human beings-through faith in Christ, we can rest assured of an eternity where "there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain" 
(Revelation 21:4). 
-Woman's Devotional Bible

{Isaiah 55:8-11}

8 “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.

“And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.

9 For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,

so my ways are higher than your ways

and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

10 “The rain and snow come down from the heavens

and stay on the ground to water the earth.

They cause the grain to grow,

producing seed for the farmer

and bread for the hungry.

11 It is the same with my word.

I send it out, and it always produces fruit.

It will accomplish all I want it to,

and it will prosper everywhere I send it.

{Romans 8:31-39}

31 What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us?  

32 Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?  

33 Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself.  

34 Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.

35 Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?  

36 (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”)  

37 No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

38 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. 

39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

{James 5:7-11}

7 Dear brothers and sisters, be patient as you wait for the Lord’s return. Consider the farmers who patiently wait for the rains in the fall and in the spring. They eagerly look for the valuable harvest to ripen.  

8 You, too, must be patient. Take courage, for the coming of the Lord is near.

9 Don’t grumble about each other, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. For look—the Judge is standing at the door!

10 For examples of patience in suffering, dear brothers and sisters, look at the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.  

11 We give great honor to those who endure under suffering. For instance, you know about Job, a man of great endurance. You can see how the Lord was kind to him at the end, for the Lord is full of tenderness and mercy.