Jesus loves children and I picture him with his arms full—laughing and teasing; and snuggling them close to the very heart of God.

 

 

 

But Jesus said,

 

“Let the children come to me.

 

Don’t stop them!

 

For the Kingdom of Heaven

 

belongs to those

 

who are like these children.”

Matthew 19:14

 

 

 

Our Faith Cora’s little world is going to expand in all directions this winter when her new sibling arrives. She’s already declared that she wants a sister so they can play princesses; and she’s even picked out a name for the baby…

 

Popsicle

 

 

And she doesn’t want to discuss any other name possibilities…not even Mercy Kate, which is what Mommy and Day prefer.

 

She refuses to consider that it might not be a sister. If pushed, she’ll squint her blue eyes, tilt her head to view you sideways, and then declare that it is not a boy because she has no toys for him to play with.

 

If pushed a little harder, she’ll say that “if it is, but it isn’t a boy”…she thinks Pumpkin would be a good name for him.

 

She also says, if it’s a boy, he can’t live at her house…not even in the chicken house and especially not in her new tree house.

 

I explained what a contingency plan is and told her that she would need one; if it’s a boy and can’t live at her house.

 

She thought hard for several long seconds. Then said that he could live at Mama Jan’s house and she would visit him 10 times.

 

So whoever arrives this winter—Popsicle or Pumpkin or Mercy Kate—I’m guessing it won’t take long for all of us, Faith Cora included, to fall in love with the tiny little one who is currently being knit together.

 

 

 

You made all the delicate,

 

inner parts of my body

 

and knit me together in my mother’s womb.

Psalm 139:13

 

 

Just as you cannot understand

 

the path of the wind

 

or the mystery of a tiny baby

 

growing in its mother’s womb,

 

so you cannot understand

 

the activity of God,

 

who does all things.

Ecclesiastes 11:5

 

Amen.

 

 

I realized last night how comfortable I’ve become with saying “I don’t know”. The words are freeing; and so is the choice to not struggle with the “whys” behind it all.

 

It’s undeniable that horrible and senseless things happen in this world; and there are 24 available hours in everybody’s day to wonder why.

 

But it dawned on me that every single time I embrace my honest answer, “I don’t know”; then I am acknowledging a basic truth—God is God and I am not. And what a relief that is and what freedom it delivers.

 

I’m not supposed to know everything; and trying to explain things that I don’t know anything about gets me into murky places. Trying to speak for God, on something I don’t understand, is downright dangerous.

 

Just ask poor old Job; bless his heart. He lived right, but lost everything; and ultimately finally questioned God’s wisdom…and then experienced God’s response.

 

When roaring out of the whirlwind came the thundering voice of the eternal, holy, and incomprehensible God…

 

 

“Who is this that questions my wisdom

with such ignorant words?…

 

 

Where were you

when I laid the foundations of the earth?

Tell me, if you know so much.

 

 

Who determined its dimensions

and stretched out the surveying line?

 

 

What supports its foundations,

and who laid its cornerstone

 

 

as the morning stars sang together

and all the angels shouted for joy?

 

Job 38: 2; 4-7

 

Who, indeed?

 

Clarified in the presence of the invisible God.

 

 

 

When I finally get to heaven, I want to meet Job—hands down, one of the most flat-out amazing examples of a good man who chose to see God first and his problems second. Oftentimes, I approach God through my problems; which means my ability to see and hear him gets mighty murky. Job’s way is better.

Within a short time, the poor man lost everything that defined his life…wealth, all 10 of his adult children, and finally his personal health. He was blindsided; his good life totally upended through absolutely no fault of his own.

But his immediate response was amazing: he tore his robe in grief; then fell to the ground, and worshiped God.

He said,

“I came naked from my mother’s womb,

and I will be naked when I leave.

The LORD gave me what I had,

and the LORD has taken it away.

Praise the name of the LORD!”

Job 1:21

Sometime later, Job’s friend, obviously not a trained grief counselor or encourager, had the audacity to say that the kids had been killed as punishment for their sins. It would have been hard for me  not to haul off and wallop that friend, or at least, as our family used to say, “pop ‘em with your mouth”.

But all the while, so many important—yet invisible—things were happening in a different realm, away from the earthly stage; things that if known, would have dragged clear understanding of the tragedies out into the open.

Satan was behind the scenes, skulking around God’s heavenly court—just begging God’s permission to “prove” that Job had a price; and could be beaten and broken to the point where he’d finally curse God to His face.

But God knew his man better than Satan did.

And it’s absolutely the same today; our lives get turned completely upside down—very often through no fault of our own—and there are no logical earthly ways to make sense of it all.

But I stand firm, beyond any shadow of any doubt, that God’s still in charge—whether it’s on or off the earthly stage—He’s still got it.