My daughter and I were talking about dinosaurs, creation, and the universe the other night. We discussed different opinions that Christians and non Christians have about these events and how people who have the same religious beliefs can arrive at different scientific beliefs. This isn’t a post about that.
Instead it’s a post about God. Maybe God allows things we don’t understand – in creation, in our lives – to remind us that He is God. Maybe if we understood everything, we might think we had all the answers. And if we had all the answers, we might think we were like God. And if we already have a god, we don’t need Him.
After the great calamity in Job’s life, God is silent for many chapters. Finally He says, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?” (Job 38:4) Then He describes the majesty and wonder of creation and asks Job to explain his (Job’s) part in it. All Job can say in response is “Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth” (Job 40:4).
Maybe you have a situation where you’d like to lodge a complaint against God. Maybe you look at this circumstance and feel like He hasn’t held up His end of the bargain. That’s ok. God never faults Job for his questions.
When we come up against our own calamities, the things too hard for us to understand, we don’t necessarily need an answer about why God has allowed these things to happen. What we need is a reminder of who God is.
When the impossible happens, we’re quick to say if we were in charge, it never would have happened. In times like that, if we were honest, we want a god who is answerable to us, who wouldn’t allow things we wouldn’t have chosen. But it’s precisely those times when we need a reminder that God is bigger than we are, better than we are, greater than we are. We don’t need a god like us – we already know our limitations! Our difficult circumstance highlights that we don’t have what it takes. We need a God who is greater than those limitations, who is limitless, who can stand in our gaps, who can move our mountains, who can reshape our universe.
Since we are not God, we can’t guarantee that our situation will have the desired outcome. However, we can still be encouraged. Just because God doesn’t do what we want Him to do, doesn’t mean that He isn’t at work. It means that He is still God.