This quote packs a bit of punch. I like it. It's comforting. It made for a great Instagram photo. But it lacks something.
I'm not quite sure how to explain it. It doesn't lack in a bad way, just in our understanding of God's power and majesty.
God knowing the “last punctuation mark before we pronounce the first syllable” brings incredible comfort because it means He cares for us in ways unimaginable. I can't even remember the details of my morning and I’ll be honest – I love myself a whole lot.
How much more does God love me if He knows not only what I've done, with whom, when and where, but He also knows what I was thinking, how I was feeling and the condition of my heart every single one of the 12,562,603 minutes I have been alive (at the time of this posting)?
Not only that, God knows all of those things and everything else that pertains to the rest of my time on this Earth and He knew it all before eternity began.
Before I took my first breath.
Before my ancestors arrived in America.
Before Jesus WOW’ed teachers in the temple at the age of 12.
Before Eve took a bite of that apple.
He knew these things about me and He cared. And good God, He still loves me.
He knows those things about you, too. And man, are you the apple of His eye. What a magnificent God.
The danger in this quote emerges when those with broken hearts question the goodness of God. If God knows all of this, one might argue, then He knew about the abuse.
He knew about the job loss.
He knew about the cancer.
He knew about the miscarriage.
He knew about the unexpected death.
If He loves me so much and He knew these things were going to happen, why didn’t He stop them? If He’s so good, why did He let tragedy ruin my life?
I don’t know. I’m not here to pretend that I do. But I’m not even going to entertain a discussion arguing God’s goodness.
Bad things happen because of sin, not because of God. He did not cause those things to happen, nor did He allow them to happen in order for good to occur (a misinterpretation of Romans 8:28). He can work these things together for your good, and He does that often. He also has the power to stop tragedy from happening, and I don’t know why He doesn’t sometimes.
What I do know is that He stops a whole Hell* of a lot of other things that could disrupt our lives every single day. Have you thanked Him for His protection, yet?
The beauty and the curse of free will is that we are allowed to make our own decisions. Unfortunately, these decisions don’t just impact our lives; they affect others, as well. People we may never even meet are affected by the choices we make, yet we selfishly continue to live our lives as if we are the only ones who matter.
I’m currently (sinfully) obsessed with Emeli Sande. If you haven’t heard her music, you’re doing yourself a disservice by wasting time reading this blog. Log onto Pandora immediately, I won’t even be offended.
If I could write the lyrics to every single song on her album, without getting arrested, I would list them here. Instead I’ll just focus on a few words of one of my favorites, “Heaven.”
Oh Heaven, oh Heaven,
I wake with good intentions,
But the day, it always lasts too long.
Don’t get weary in these long days.
You may wake with good intentions and end the day in a puddle.
It’s OK. God knows. And He cares. And He still loves you. And the most amazing thing is no matter what happens in this life, God already knows how it ends.
And we can rest assured that if we put our trust in Him, it will end well.
It will end in Heaven.
*In case you forgot, Hell is a real place and not just a curse word used for dramatic effect, so get your cursor off the "Report" button.
