God Only Knows

THIS WEEK will be my last week of classes of my first semester of college. I'm thankful that I'm going to have about a month to just be with my family, and that I've made it through three months of classes away from home.

For many of us this month is one of the best in the year. We get to celebrate Christmas and the new year, and just take a break to enjoy being warm on cold days. But it's still earth, so there is still a dash of hell thrown in.

Last week a student in Architecture named Jade, a couple years ahead of me, died when her car flipped as she drove back to school from Thanksgiving break. She was buckled in and sober. But now she is gone, and everyone she knew is devastated. I have read some of the notes they left for her beside the flowers and the display of her work. She was a really lovely person, not just somebody people say nice things about once they're gone. She was known for bringing color and smiles, and for her promising skill in architecture. She was going places.

Doesn't God love us? Isn't He good? From our earthbound eye level, it isn't easy to understand. We know by faith that God sees more than we do, and that He understands what we don't. But He also knows that when the world goes dark, that is still hard for us to see.

Psalm 90:2 declares, "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God."

And verse 12 says, "So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." Our lives here are brief. But God is not bound by time. Our perspective is small, but His is as wide as can be.

I think that what He wants us to understand that not everything is good, but He is good, and He can make good come out of everything. When hell rains out of the sky, He is God, and He understands pain. When we are on the mountain tasting heaven, He is still God, and He delights in showing us His goodness.

Isaiah 43:13, "Indeed before the day was, I am He; and there is no one who can deliver out of My hand; I work, and who will reverse it?"

God is sovereign, so no part of our lives goes unnoticed by Him. Those who trust in Him can see hope in the distance, because a change of situation does not mean that God has changed, or that His promises have faltered. It only means there is more left to see. He is not done working.

Isaiah 43:19, "Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert."

Repeatedly in the Old Testament He is promising to do something new, something amazing. He says He will send His Servant to bring salvation to the world. Then in the New Testament, He does it and almost everybody is surprised.

Isaiah 49:6, "Indeed He says, 'It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, that You should be My salvation to the ends of the erath.'"

When He sent Israel into captivity, He promised that it would not be forever. In fact, He sent them with a promise of love tagged on.

v.29:10-13, "[10] For thus says the Lord: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. [11] For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. [12] Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. [13] And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart."

God fulfilled His promise to Israel. He wants His children to understand that He doesn't do things or let them be done for no good reason. He hates when we are hurting, and it hurts Him too. But so does our sin because it makes us far from Him.

God makes miracles out of madness. Maybe the miracle is that Jade was even born to bring so much joy to people's lives. Tomorrow isn't promised, but she lived each today fully. Maybe the miracle is what she left behind. I didn't have to know her to know that she's taught a lot of good things to a lot of people. She didn't live in vain.

One thing we know about life is that we really don't know very much about our lives. Will the milk go bad too soon? Will you ever find a guy you can bring home to your daddy, or, as the case may be, a girl to bring home to your mama? Will you pay off your loans? Will your loved one get better? God only knows.

But don't be discouraged, because He not only knows but cares.

Isaiah 49:15-16, "[15]Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you. [16] See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands. Your walls are continually before Me."