“Why did God let the Connecticut massacre happen?” Twenty innocent grade school kids were gunned down in a moment of horror. If God really loves little children and if He is all-powerful why didn’t He intervene and stop the shooter before he entered the school? If we love our children, we do everything we can to protect them from harm. If an omnipotent God loves us why doesn’t He show it by shielding us from evil?
I’ll guarantee you those questions are being asked repeatedly by grieving parents this weekend. We’re asking it too. And it has no easy answer. The Bible says God’s ways are higher than our ways and therefore we are incapable of totally understanding Him.
But there is a simple analogy that helps me. Why does a dad take the training wheels off his child’s bicycle when he knows his action will result in suffering? He knows a spill is inevitable and there will probably be painful scrapes and crocodile tears. Yet the dad still removes the training wheels and anxiously watches from nearby because he knows that risk, adventure, and freedom are essential for a fulfilling life.
If that dad were overly protective, the child would never experience the thrill of the wind in his face as he rides training-wheel-free down the sidewalk. In fact, if the dad’s main objective were protection, his child would never be permitted to play sports, drive a car, go on a date, get married or have a child.
We are not puppets on a string, we are free human beings created in the image of God and we are given the privilege of living in a fallen world. The risk of pain and danger contributes significantly to our maturity and fulfillment. However, we are going to crash and wince in terrible agony sometimes. How we respond either deepens our faith or destroys it. It’s been said, that while pain is inevitable, misery is optional.
While God doesn’t exempt us from pain, He does make three promises to help sustain us. First, He promises He will be at our side in suffering. “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you”. (Heb. 13:5) I like the plaque that reads, “Lord, help me remember that nothing is going to happen today that you and I can’t handle together.”
Secondly, God promises that suffering will mature us and benefit us if we let it. “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:2-4)
Thirdly, God promises that He will make all things right one day in heaven. Romans 8:18 assures us that, “… our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”
Heaven is not wishful thinking. God, who always keeps His word, promises that one day He will judge the world with justice. He promises that by His grace He will grant eternal life to those who continue to trust in Him. His followers will be given a new, glorified body. No longer will there be any curse of sin. There will be no more violent , senseless shootings. “There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain for the old order of things has passed away”. (Rev. 21:4) All things will be made new and we will be reunited with loved ones in the Lord. Imagine! There is going to be a magnificent reunion in heaven someday.
What if 100 years from now every one of those twenty grade school children who were killed in Newtown, Connecticut are very much alive in heaven? What if a number of them are in heaven who would never have accepted Christ had they lived beyond the age of accountability? What if they look back and are actually grateful that they spent their additional time in a perfect heaven rather than suffering in a fallen world? What if when we see them 100 years from now they are laughing and rejoicing with their parents and all conclude, as Joseph did about being sold into slavery, “Man meant it for evil but God turned it around for good”?
There’s an old hymn that says, “Farther along we’ll know all about it. Farther along we’ll understand why. Cheer up my brother, live in the sunshine, we’ll understand it all by and by.”
In the meantime we can only trust that God is good and wait for His ultimate will to be accomplished.
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen but what is unseen, for what is seen is temporary, what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Cor. 4:16-18)
