My heart is breaking right now for a friend who suffered a devastating and unexpected loss. She asked me a question that I’ve heard so many people ask and that I’ve asked myself at my lowest point in life…”How is God fair?”
How could He take someone who is so young and still has things to do on Earth?
How could He allow bad things to happen to good people?
Why do good things happen to the wicked while the good live and die in poverty?
I think our human minds have this all messed up. It’s not about whether or not God is fair. He absolutely is. He is justice, truth and righteousness personified.
It’s life that isn’t fair. We are exposed to toxins that kill us. We make choices that send us down ruinous paths. We hate when we should love; we kill when we should try to save.
As I read through the Bible I find it filled from cover to cover with stories of people who have a lot of bad things happen to them. Sometimes they find out why – usually because of bad choices and sinful nature – but most often they do not. Sometimes bad things happen to set up a miracle later down the line. We get to see the why because we have the luxury of time and space that separates us from their stories to our lifetime. We can see, for example, the good that came out of Joseph being hated and sold into slavery by his own brothers – an entire nation was saved. But in the middle of it, I would bet that Joseph wondered….”How is God fair?”
As Christians, we know that we have a God who is supreme. In the end, everything and everyone will bow at His feet. Then, and only then, will we get to see for ourselves how God is fair.
He promised us He would wipe away every tear. There will be no more sadness or death or mourning. He will allow us entry into His Holy home – heaven. We certainly don’t deserve that!
God will judge those that killed for no reason; stole hope from the hopeless; denied justice to the destitute. He will send to everlasting death Satan and his army of angels that spent every bit of his energy tripping us up, hoping to keep us from an eternal home with God. He will bring to justice those that killed His children just because they called Jesus their Lord.
God is fair. It’s life that isn’t. All we can do when we feel like we’re drowning in sorrow and pain and despair is look up. If we clear our eyes for just a moment, we’ll be able to see that there is a hand reaching down to us. A hand with nail scars in it. A hand that has been tempted and suffered and lived the life of a poor, homeless man. A hand that believed that God is fair and that loved us so much that He died in our place so that death would only be a temporary thing for those that believe in Him. Death cannot keep us from God when we are His. Nothing can keep us from God when we are His.
He promised. And I believe that promise. So do millions of saints and ordinary people that have lived life and suffered. Heaven will be filled with those that looked up and took ahold of that hand and let God walk with them through the hard, dark times that we know are a part of living on Earth.
I still hurt for my friend. And I hurt for all of us when we go through things that make us question God. I’m holding on to the hope that someday we’ll have the luxury of time and space to be able to understand, once and for all, that God is fair.
I will turn their mourning into joy, I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow. – Jeremiah 31:13
