Over the last few years I’ve been slowly pondering the deep and important questions of how to deal with difficult passages in the Bible — like God’s wrath and vengeance — and also why bad things happen if God is good. I look forward to exploring this over the coming months and years. But in the meantime, on a related note…
I was speaking to a close friend of mine recently about his experience of losing his baby girl to an incredibly rare disease, only half an hour after she was born into the world. He expressed that one of the key things he learned about God through that time is that God is not absent in our grief. He is right there, crying with us. He feels our pain and empathises with us. His Holy Spirit gives breath to our sorrow and comforts us in times of trouble. He assures us of our hope and is glorified in our weakness, as he makes even the messiest of things somehow beautiful, in ways we least expect.
That discussion was a moving moment — recognising and grappling with the reality of life and death in this world, which we tend to altogether ignore and insulate ourselves from at every opportunity.
But the reality is, God is real and he’s moving in reality. And he wants a relationship with you. Specifically, the relationship between Father and child, bought by the blood of God’s unique, one-of-a-kind Son, Jesus. But relationships are, and always have been, a two-way street — even with God himself. So I encourage you to ask yourself: how am I leaning in to my relationship with my ultimate Father, the God of the universe?