if

The story is told of ten-year-old Johnny, who rushes home from school one day. He invades the fridge and is scooping out some cherry vanilla ice cream when his mother enters the kitchen.

She says, "Put that away, Johnny. You can't have ice cream now. It's too close to supper time. Go outside and play."

Johnny whimpers and says, "There's no one to play with."

Trying to pacify him, she says, "OK. I'll play with you. What do you want to play?"

He says, "I wanna play Mommy and Daddy."

To appease him, she says, "Fine, I'll play. What do I do?"

Johnny says, "You go in the living room and sit down."

Mom goes into the living room. Johnny, feeling a bit bold, swaggers down the hall and opens the utility closet. He dons his father's old fishing hat and overcoat. He goes into the living room, sits down, picks up the remote and starts changing channels.

His mother says, "What do I do now?"

In a gruff manner, Johnny says, "Go in the kitchen and get that kid some ice cream!"

Having three children, I hesitate to think what they might do if given the chance to be Mom or Dad for a while! But, suppose you could be God for a while. Ever played the game, "If I were God........"? If I were God, I suspect I would be tempted to be a bit like Johnny -- "Get that boy some money! Whatever he wants, you make sure he gets it! And take away all of those problems that make life difficult for him!"

Since that's what we think we would do, we don't understand it when God doesn't act that way. But like a ten-year-old who doesn't understand the wisdom of his parent's decisions, we seldom understand the wisdom of an Almighty God. That's really the point of the book of Job. Job spends chapter after chapter saying, "God, I don't understand why these things are happening!" God's response is, in essence, "You don't need to know why; you just need to know me."

"I will extol You, my God, O King; and I will bless Your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless You, and I will praise Your name forever and ever. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable." (Psalm 145:1-3).

Have a great day!

Alan Smith