No Satisfactory Answer

My 45-year-young cousin lay dying 150 miles away.

I'd only recently moved to the area and hadn't seen him for years, so I prayed that someone nearby would share the gospel with him. 

But I felt God wanted me to go.

I left immediately and found him in bed, fully alert, but unable to talk. Asking the Lord to give me the words to speak, I shared the gospel with him and encouraged him to accept Jesus as Savior.

Before I left that day, his sister confronted me. She was angry. "How can I believe in a God who'd let my brother die so young?"

I didn't know what to say, but when my cousin died the following day, I started seeking an answer to this troubling question:

"Why does God allow pain and suffering?"

After months of study, I concluded there is no satisfactory answer for all of our questions here on earth. But there's something more comforting than all the answers: Whatever happens in our lives and in our world, we can rest assured that God is 100% loving, good, wise, and trustworthy. 

Like a small child trusts the superior intellect and right motives of their loving father, we can trust our Lord. God gives us all the knowledge we need to navigate our present life, but we are not able to understand all that God understands (2 Peter 1:3; Deuteronomy 29:29).

"For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." 1 Corinthians 13:12

When we face things that are hard to understand, we live by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). 

Bible Love Notes