Lent - Day 6 (February 24)

Larger Catechism – Day 6 of Lent

Question 18: What is God’s providence?

Answer:  God’s providence is his completely holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing every creature and every action, ordering them all to his own glory.

I will be honest with you, there are many things about God that I do not understand.  I like to jokingly say, “That’s above my pay grade” when faced with things in scripture that I don’t understand or cannot wrap my brain around.

Today’s Lenten reading is challenging.  One the one hand I can totally agree that God is:

·         Completely holy.

·         Completely wise.

·         Preserving and governing every creature and its actions.

·         Ordering events and actions all to his glory.

On the other hand, I can’t understand how it all works or why he does some of the things he does.

At times like this I pause and think about raising Brenda’s and my two kids (now grown adults).  I am sure that there were MANY times when they did not understand why we parents did the things we did.  A child does not understand a rule against touching a stove burner—until they do it and get burnt.  A child does not understand why he/she needs to wash their hands before eating.  A child does not understand the need for an immunization shot.  The parent knows and understands.

I need to keep reminding myself that God is God, and I am not.  There will always be things about God that I do not understand. That’s ok.  But this I do know, God can order even the most tragic of events in a way that can bring him glory.

This Lenten series from the Larger Catechism is reminding me that I cannot put God in a box.  God is so much greater than I can imagine or fathom.  His wisdom and understanding go way beyond any feeble attempt that I can make at understanding them.  This one thing that I do know is that the God of the universe love you and me so much that he was willing to send his son to live a life we could not live (be perfect and thus fulfill the law), and died a death he did not deserve (we deserve to die for our sins), to give us life with him eternally.