Uniting Opposites

The older I get, the longer I’m saved, and the more I see of life, I’m becoming increasingly cautious, as well as suspicious, of those among us who profess to have all the answers to life’s perplexities. Like Daniel’s image with feet mixed with iron and clay, there are some things that don’t seem to mix. That is, you can’t get them to fuse together; they just won’t bond to one another. And all the well-intentioned explanations of friends and loved ones do not satisfy the wondering soul.

The old Christian sage, George H. Morrison wrote an article concerning the puzzling things of life, “It isn’t what we cannot comprehend, but what we cannot reconcile, that troubles us.” It is not so much the difficulties found in attempting to unite certain doctrines, such as the sovereignty of God and the free will of man. What is so problematic for many thinkers is reconciling the goodness and severity of God. They seem to be irreconcilable. For example, God told Moses that it was He Himself, who makes the dumb, deaf, seeing, and the blind. Try explaining that to a young mother who just gave birth to a blind child.

The truth is, God’s wonderful love is compatible with everything that would seem to us harsh. Trying to understand God’s extremes will only bring endless agony of mind and heart. Such pain, you will find, is greater than the hurt you are experiencing. As darling David said, “When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me.”  Some things the Lord will make plain to us now; other things, only when we come face to face with the One of whom it is written, “He doeth all things well.”