Job

Now that I've figured out how to upload pictures, I'm addicted. There will now be a daily picture, just because I can. It just makes everything nicer. And prettier. (This one I've titled "Purple Flower".)

Especially because today we're talking about Job. You remember all the terrible things that happened to him. Like losing everything good in his life. Everything. Even his healthy skin. "So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes." (Job 2:7-8)

But Job's greatest struggle was not all his losses, although that would have been enough to undo the stoutest believer. It was the reconciling of his belief in God's goodness with what he saw all around him. Who was this God that allowed these sorts of things to happen?

By the 19th chapter, Job has been reconciled to God's purposes. He has given up the need for healing and restoration and proclaims: "For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God."

It no longer mattered what happened to him, as long as he would one day see God. Habakkuk says much the same thing: "Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no fruit, the flock be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's; he makes me tread on my high places." (3:17-19)

We don't always get to know why God allows terrible things to happen to us and our loved ones. Sometimes we get a glimpse, but mostly it remains a mystery. But God can be trusted, no matter how bad things are. Our Redeemer does live, and we will one day see him. And everything will be set right.