It’s common for people to wonder why a God who loves us would allow His people to struggle with disease and disaster. None of us make it through this life without facing heartache. But when we find ourselves questioning God, we need to remember that this fallen world we live in isn’t the place He initially created for us.
In the beginning, after God was through creating everything within the world, He gave it to Adam and Eve, (the first humans) and gave them dominion over everything He had made. Can you imagine that? He created a paradise for them to live in and made them rulers over all of His creations. The only stipulation He gave them was that they couldn’t eat the fruit from one tree. Of everything in the world, He only withheld one thing from them.
You may wonder why God created that tree in the first place. Truthfully, I think that’s one of those questions we may never find an answer to this side of heaven, but if the tree had not been there and we’d not had a choice to make (to obey God or not) we would only have been like servants, not a people who choose to obey God and love Him in the way He loves us.
God gave Adam and Eve a choice and they made the wrong decision. Because of the choice they made, death entered the world. When they sinned, their eyes were opened to their own nakedness and they developed a sense of shame they’d never had before. They made coverings for themselves with leaves but God made them clothing from animal skins. These were the first deaths that resulted from sin. Throughout the old testament, people would kill an animal and present it to the Lord as a sacrifice. This seems to be such an awful thing for God to ask for in payment for our sins but people needed to realize that sin has a mighty cost. The cost of sin is death.
Later, Jesus the Son of God was born into this world to become the ultimate sacrifice for ALL sin. There is nothing more worthy to give than your own life. Or, from a parent’s perspective, there is nothing we cherish more than our children. This is the price God paid to show His love to us. He gave the life of His Son, and Jesus willingly became that sacrifice to save all who believe in Him. Would you give your life to save a world full of people who don’t care to know you? Would you give your child? What greater thing could God give to show His love for us?
The current world we live in is one filled with sadness and chaos, but it’s not the world God intended for us, it is the world WE have made. And actually, death isn’t this horrible thing we imagine it to be. It is a gift God has given us, because it allows us escape this fallen world.
So when you find yourself wondering why God allows bad things to happen, you need to just trust that He has a reason, just as He did for warning Adam and Eve not to eat that fruit. They weren’t obedient. Will you be? Will you trust God and obey Him even when you don’t understand?
Leave a Reply