How Big is your god?

An Arizona Republic Columnist wrote about a Mesa fire fighter who risked his life to save an infant from a burning, smoke-filled home. He ended the column by quoting the fire fighter who remarked: “The baby’s hand didn’t just drop into mine; a larger one put it there.”  But he was taken to task by readers who disagreed with his theology.

One said: “Do you really believe in a God that would save some children but let others burn?” Another asked, “What are parents, who tried but failed to rescue their own children, to think when they read your nonsense?” These are very good questions, of course. One founding minister of a large Phoenix Church explained, “If we believe God intervenes and violates the orderly processes of His own creation, then we are saying that God is a split personality, that the God of creation has done so poorly that the God of redemption must come in and correct things.”  But what is missing from this pastor’s explanation is any reference to sin. It isn’t that the “God of creation has done so poorly, “ but that His creatures have done so poorly, thus muddling the whole picture.

To be honest, no one really knows God’s reasons for doing this or that, nor why He seemingly answers some prayers but not others. But because one prayer may not be answered to our satisfaction doesn’t negate the power of prayer. We happen to live at a time when the arrogance of man is greater than his humility or his faith. If God can be explained or His thought processes predicted then we have no use for Him. It is only little minds that dispense with the  miraculous because it doesn’t fit their understanding of things. God doesn’t need our permission to act. Neither does He have to explain those acts to us. That is what faith is all about. If I could understand everything about God, what kind of a God would He be? Certainly not the Infinite One described for us in the Bible. All l need to know is this: “In all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purposes.” (Romans 8:28).  What I do know is that He is at work in “all things” pertaining to my life, that He is working for my good, and that I am the recipient of His divine call. I’ll let Him decide what He wants to do, how He wants to do it, and why it is to be done. And in the process I’ll stand by in awe of what He does, rather than display my ignorance about what He doesn’t do.

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