The Character of God Part 3. . .God is Good

Yesterday I saw something I hope I never see again. We have just returned from a week of Revival Meetings in Missouri. After Sunday night church, we went to a 4th of July gathering of about 150 people. We enjoyed the food, fellowship and the fireworks! As we were traveling home late Sunday night, the alternator in my SUV decided to stop functioning. Here we were in the middle of nowhere, with a truckload of kids and the vehicle just stopped. No lights. No power. And, of course it wouldn't start. Luckily, I had my cell phone. I was able to call a friend and he came to see what we could do to get us home. By the time he arrived, we had pushed the SUV (Ford Expedition) a couple of hundred feet down the road and off onto a side road. As he pulled up, I was able to start the truck again. He then led us all the way home while I drove with no headlights. We all made it safely. I thank the Lord for good friends and for His watchcare over us. So, naturally, my 4th of July started the next morning by installing a new alternator. Another friend of mine went by the parts store and picked it up for me; and since he had just replaced his alternator in his Expedition the month before he was a great help in getting mine installed. After this we jump-started the truck and let it run. Finally, we could go on with our plans for the 4th! We met this same friend at the Swimming Pool where both of our families enjoyed some play-time together. After a couple of hours it was decided that he and I would go back to his house, meet another friend of ours and then drive down into Tennessee to purchase some fireworks for the evening. While he was getting cleaned up and I was nearly dozing off on the couch, there came a frantic knock and ringing of the doorbell. I thought it was our friend coming to pick us up and that he was just goofing around by knocking and ringing so obnoxiously. As I opened the door, I quickly realized that something else was going on. There was a man whom I had never met yelling at me to get out of the house! As I walked outside, my friend came around the corner in the hallway. We both walked outside to find his SUV burning in his driveway near the garage. Within 30 seconds, the SUV was engulfed in flames that were so large that the heat was unbearable and they were melting the vinyl on the soffit of the house, as well as scorching the garage door. We could hear the sirens, and it seemed as though the firemen would be there any second, but even just a few seconds later it seemed as though the fire had doubled in size and would soon be using the cab and rear of the truck for fuel, not to mention the fact that the roof of their brick home could soon be engulfed in flames as well. The front tires exploded as a neighbor tried to use a garden hose on the flames. A few seconds later the fire trucks pulled up and they worked quickly to get the flames extinguished. They had the fire out in mere seconds, but the great damage had already been done. The hood of the truck was gone. The only thing left in the engine compartment was the engine block. Everything else, including the drivers side front wheel was melted or disintegrated. The steering wheel and dash were melted, the windshield had shattered from the heat. The firemen placed a powerful exhaust fan in the garage and pushed a huge amount of smoke out of the garage and attic. Thankfully, the rest of the house was not damaged. We stood there in disbelief. I still can't get the picture out of my head.

What, you may ask, does this have to do with the character of God? One of the most difficult things to understand, perhaps.....the idea of Theodicy, or the existence of an omnipotent God while there is evil present in the world. In other words, the age-old question, "If there really is a God then why is there suffering and/or evil in the world?" As we accept the idea of God as He is revealed through Scripture, we accept that God is bigger than time itself and, as stated previously, he has always existed. It is with this understanding that we see God knowing the beginning from the end, or seeing the "big picture" as it were. Evil is, most certainly, present with us on planet earth. The philosopher in me says that we could not know "Good" unless there was "Evil." Thus, God, though not the Author of Evil, can, according to His will "work all things together for the good..." He sees the big picture. We try to understand from a human standpoint (now we see in a glass dimly) and have difficulty sometimes reconciling the idea of evil existing alongside an omnipresent, omniscient God. Would it help to tell you that my friend and his family had planned to take their SUV to Orlando the very next day and that this could certainly have happened in the middle of nowhere, or on the side of a highway hundreds of miles away? Did God know this? Certainly, the God of the Bible knew that this could happen, and, in fact, knew precisely when it would happen. Bad things happen, but not everything is from God. However, we can rest assured that nothing takes God by surprise. As we encounter the difficulties of life, the trials and calamities, we can trust that God can and will "work everything together for the good, for those who love God and for those who are the called according to His purpose." Could it be that God allowed this small calamity to avert an even bigger tragedy about which we will never know? Such is the will of God when compared to the minds and experiences of men.