Shadows and Light

Bad news or tragedy brings the question to mind, is God really good?  That question has been raised by me and many people over the months since Scott’s death.  How could God do this?  Why take Scott and leave my grandmothers who are both in their 90’s and have lived full lives?  This is a conversation that my mom and I have had a few times in the last couple of days –in talking about recent health crisis for friends and family.  About a month ago I began reading a book entitled, “You’ll Get Through This”  by Max Lucado.  I read a few chapters and then put it down for a couple of weeks until tonight.  It really spoke to my heart and I want to share a short excerpt from the book.

“Our choice comes down to this:  trust God or turn away.  He will cross the line.  He will shatter our expectations.  And we will be left to make a decision.  . . .Is God good when the outcome is not? . . . God owes us no more explanation than this.  Besides, if he gave one, what makes us think we would understand it?  Might the problem be less God’s plan and more our limited perspective?  Suppose the wife of George Frideric Handel came upon a page of her husband’s famous oratorio Messiah.  The entire work was more than two hundred pages long.  Imagine that she discovered one page on the kitchen table.  On it her husband had written only one measure in a minor key, one that didn’t work on its own.  Suppose she, armed with the fragment of dissonance, marched into his studio and said,’This music makes no sense.  You are a lousy composer.’  What would he think?  Perhaps something similar to what God thinks when we do the same.  We point to our minor key—our sick child, crutches, or famine – and say, ‘This makes no sense!’ Yet out of all his creation how much have we seen?  And of all his work how much do we understand?  Only a sliver.  A doorway peephole.  Is it possible that some explanation for suffering exists of which we know nothing at all? What if God’s answer to the question of suffering requires more megabytes than our puny minds have been given?”

This brings to mind a conversation I had with a friend about a year ago, in discussing our individual personal griefs.  We were discussing the many questions that we will have for God about the why of each of our situations.  It was then that it hit me, when I get to heaven I don’t think I will have questions for God because from there I will be able to see God’s entire masterpiece and it will make sense.  In photography, light is the most important thing.  In the months since I have begun playing around with photography I have learned that light is the key to getting the best pictures.  Yet, when you look at the best photos, the shadows set off the light and bring the most beauty to the photo.  From our earthly and tiny perspective, often all we see are the shadows in the rough times.  I can certainly attest to this.  That gorgeous sunset or sunrise is only made more beautiful and more dramatic by the light playing off of the shadows.  We miss the beauty created and highlighted by the shadows if all we focus on is the shadows.  It is so easy to only see the shadows and say God cannot be good if he allows this.  Yet this shadow only highlights God’s light and wonder in the masterpiece he wants to make of our lives. 

I can say, despite the grief and loss I have experienced, . . . GOD IS GOOD.

God is good, ALL. THE. TIME.