Sometimes we can't understand God's working

One of the painful things in life is observing our daughter hurting herself. Those times when the parent is just out of arms-reach to save their child tripping over and crashing to the floor. A silence follows, like the peace before a storm. A huge gasp is taken before the ear piercing scream rattles the neighbourhood. At this point our hearts poor out to her wishing we could have stopped that fall.

Therefore, we try to protect her. Our house is divided into sections using gates to keep her away from potential harm. That is trying to limit the occasions of those bumps on the head or scraps to the knee.

But the gate on the bottom of the stairs is the most annoying for our daughter. Her heart is so broken by not being able to do what she sees as best - the joy of climbing the stairs to great heights.

Our daughter must seem confused by the working of her parents. We let her explore and experience most things, but then there are other things which are off limits to her. It is so hard for our little one to understand, but she has to trust our plan will work out for her good.

We have found we are understanding more about God when we try to parallel our parenting of a child with God's relationship with humans. And I think our little one's confused state about the working of her parents parallels a Christian's wonder of how God's salvation purposes actually works out.

We hear many stories of good happening to both good and bad people, and bad happening to both good and bad people. It may be confusing how God is working in such situations to bring salvation. In the case of a person with a terminal illness, God may heal them because people will come to salvation through it, but through their death some people may also come to salvation.

God's will is for salvation to spread across the nations, but how that actually works out is impossible to know.

But the confidence Christians have is that they know God interacts with the world with amazing love. The apostle Paul wrote that God causes all things to work together for those who love Him (Romans 8:28).

Christians should have peace since God's will is for the greatest mercy and justice, although at times it may be inconceivable.

Danielle and Daniel Stott are Bible College graduates who live on the southern Gold Coast. Daniel is training to be a teacher and Danielle is caring for their baby daughter.

Danielle and Daniel's archive of articles can be viewed at www.pressserviceinternational.org/d-and-d-stott.html