God revealed practices, attitudes, values and perspectives that work in harmony with what was created. Suffering was not part of the package. People made mistakes, and it broke the system.
My mother had a table in our house when I was little. It was low enough so I could sit on it. And one time, I laid on it, and slid across it on my stomach. As as I slid, unknown to me, my belt buckle scarred the wood. The table was permanently marked. It couldn't be fixed. If I had know that was going to happen, I would not have done it. But I did do it, and "broke" the table. It was not going to be able to truly fulfill its purpose anymore. We could get a new table. Or work with it as best we could.
Trying to live as God designed in a broken world means living with suffering too. Expecting something positive to happen certainly seems like wishful thinking.
But living with hope is not meaningless, because God has injected himself into our lives and into the world. It is his presence that gives us hope. His presence demonstrates his love of us and his commitment to us. Moreover, he acted on that love to fix the effect caused by the wrong people did.
His love shows us that it is not senseless to live as he designed, and to persist in it, even though suffering may be the result of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment