I Have a King

Another Monday at work. Another day of sordid news headlines. In the midst of one more frustration with a patient, one more report of evil, or someone yelling in the produce section, it would be easy to become overwhelmed. So we came home, fixed a few fresh salads, washed some fruit for snacking, did the animal chores, put more hay on the garden, and proceeded to find a comfy seat on the porch (all by 7 pm).

I grabbed my Bible, journal, and other reading material for my porch time. With only the sound of the birds chirping and one obnoxious rooster, it was a nearly perfect atmosphere. And then the rain. What a sweet gift. With all of the rain we’ve had this spring, I’m sometimes tempted to whine when it begins to fall. But today wasn’t one of those days. Today I welcomed the pause.

Since 2020 (with the world events that I shall not name), our household hasn’t really watched the news. We began to see the blatant disregard for facts and truth and just made the decision to find our own independent sources. That decision has served us very well. The combination of the world events of 2020 and walking the path of cancer a second time had basically created an intolerance for many things. Life is just too short.

However, that doesn’t mean that we’re uninformed. The chaos in the Middle East (specifically the targeting of Israel), the loss of innocence in the lives of our children due to exploitation, the mental health crisis which presents itself in addiction, abuse or sexual sin, or even sinister actions being taken on our streets or even in local restaurants while families are trying to eat supper together. It’s all so completely out of control.

People often say something like, “I don’t understand how you can believe or follow a God who allows all of this evil. It just doesn’t make any sense”. And they’re right. It doesn’t make any sense ~ if you don’t know the beginning.

Our pastor launched a series of expository sermons on Genesis 1-11. If you don’t know, that’s where all of this story begins. It explains how God created the world and everything in it; including humans. Yesterday, we focused on chapter two. There are a few verses that tell us very quickly what happened.  Starting with verse 15 we read, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die”. Very explicit instructions. Nothing left to the imagination. You can have all the other trees. All of them. But do NOT eat from this one tree. You’ll die. All they needed to do was trust what He said. Trust that He would provide everything that was needed. In case you haven’t read the story, they didn’t heed the warning.

We were never meant to see or know evil. God tried to shield us from it. He warned us. But we thought we knew better back in the beginning and today isn’t much different. The evil that’s across the globe is no different than the evil across the fence in the neighbor’s house. We can’t make sense of it because we were never meant to.

There’s nothing I can personally do to make some radical shift or change the trajectory of this mess. But as I sit here listening to and watching the rain wash over the landscape and make everything new, I rest in the assurance that God will one day restore all things. It will again be as He intended. And in the meantime, I’ll be sitting on my porch telling anyone who will listen about the hope and joy found in Jesus.

Revelation 21: 5 ~ And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”