Deserts

We have just passed through a desert. After three painful months of suffering and anguish for everyone, a beloved brother departed to be in the presence of the Lord. Can we understand God’s purpose amid so much suffering?

We can speculate all we want; this has no explanation for our finite minds. We are not prepared to see His Glory in adversity; we merely lament like helpless children, unable to glimpse this Salvation, so great, that accompanies us even through pain.

Our faith? It trembles in the face of trials, and we ask ourselves: Why? We have no clear vision of how it was for Him. Who told us that we are exempt from suffering and pain? Who guaranteed us a life free from trials, which, after all, are human? Who told us that our God did not suffer in His own flesh, to give us the assurance that He would understand everything that happened in our lives and thus forgive us and give us the gift of eternity with Him? Even when we put Him on the cross again and again through our foolishness, He knows that we are weak in the face of temptation and knows how difficult temptations are to resist, because He was tempted in all things.

Someday we will understand everything—His plan, His perfect plan—and we will know why He allowed certain things. What we must be certain of is that He is by our side and loves us with that love which “Surpasses all understanding.” Prayer is all that remains for us, along with waiting for Him to fulfill His word and purpose, because He is faithful.

In the search for reasons, someone said, “God does not share His Glory” (referring to the fact that our brother’s family were idolaters). His wife and little girl are not; they are our sisters. They have been a bastion of faith, an example to follow; they have been tested like Job and have remained steadfast in their confidence that God will do what is best.

But I thought: Is that my God? Is His mercy limited by a selfish egocentrism devoid of divinity? No! My God is different. My God suffers with those who suffer, and His Holy Spirit groans with the agony of His children. My God is able to take us to His dwelling place to spare us further suffering, or to deliver us from a life lacking in quality that might become a stumbling block in the lives of others. That my God would indeed do!

I believe that we sometimes boast presumptuously, claiming to know the God whose will is always in harmony with His justice. Let us simply trust, submit, and await the moment when we meet again. Then, and only then, will we be able to understand.