Maybe

"Did God do that?" he asked from the backseat.

We were headed to little Josiah's funeral. Josiah left this world for a better place before he had a chance to meet any of us face to face.

In the midst of questions and comments that came my way as my 7 year old nephew rode with me to the cemetery, this one was quite profound.

I wanted to answer him as honestly as possible. To make sure I understood his question correctly, I clarified. "Did God do what? You mean because the baby died?"  And he nodded his head yes.

After a few seconds I answered, "Maybe."

Then I said, "Let me ask you something. Imagine you were running down the street. If you tripped and fell and your Mom didn't get to catch you, does that mean she pushed you?"  "No," he replied.  I continued, "If you are running down the street and your Mom is nearby, sometimes she'll be able to stop you from falling and she will catch you. Sometimes she won't. But even if she let you fall, it doesn't mean she pushed you.  That's how it is with God sometimes. Sometimes he lets things happen, but it doesn't mean He did it. So did God take the baby?  Maybe. Maybe he wanted the baby to live with him in heaven. Or maybe he just let the baby go there and let it happen. We don't really know for sure.

I asked if he understood what I was saying and he nodded yes. Our conversation continued on in a different vein.

But I must say his question and my answer lingered with me and still does.

I don't pretend to know the actions and purposes of God. And I can't explain why some of us experience the pain and hurt we do.I can give my theories. I can give my input. But I don't have a concrete answer.

So many times we have the same questions lingering in our hearts. "Did God do that?"  Did God cause that bad situation to happen?  Why didn't God spare me from pain and hurt? Why did God allow this or that situation when he knew there'd be a negative outcome? Why didn't God protect me from it?

I think God graciously allows himself to be the easy target. Things go well in the world, and we pat ourselves on the back. We congratulate ourselves on our well earned promotions, we celebrate the accomplishments of our hands and hard work, we brag about our children and all we went through to "bring them up right." We take credit for all the good decisions and earned favor.

Then something goes wrong. And we stand before God, shaking our fists at Him, asking why and how he can allow such terrible things to happen. And because he didn't prevent us from falling, we blame him for pushing us. Because he didn't stop the hurt, we blame him for causing the pain.

I don't know why we take the credit for the good and blame him for the bad.

I don't know why He doesn't prevent all the hurt and pain from happening.

I think of Job in the Bible who said, "Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked I shall return there.  The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Although Job believed the good and the bad came from God, he choose to bless him instead of blame him.

Here was a  man, who had more reason than most to shake his fists at God and say, "Why?! How could you?!" Instead, his response was: "You are still worthy of respect and reverence, because of who you are, in spite of what happens in my life. In spite of what you allow"

My nephew knows that if his Mom doesn't catch him when he falls, this doesn't mean she pushed him.

I hope we can learn to believe the same about God.