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Thursday, August 14, 2008

"God takes care of his children"

Waiting in a line this morning at the university transportation office to renew my bus pass, I overheard the story of the guy ahead of me. Motorcycle rider, multiple parking passes, one of which he'd returned but was still being billed for. But the clerk helping him was smoothing everything out and seemed to conceive of herself as one of God's angels or something, for she said, "God takes care of his children, doesn't he?" And the guy said, "You got that right."

Well...not really. The lucky ones, maybe. The ones who don't suffer and die prematurely, like my friend Gary, who's not expected to make it after suffering massive brain injuries in a motorcycle accident the other day, right before the eyes of his wife, on her own Harley behind him.

But even Gary's wife asked her friends to pray for him, as though Gary's disastrous fall of the roulette ball could be made right by a miraculous intervention. As though Gary could yet be one of the lucky ones of God's children, even though his being hit and run off the road by the vehicle he was trying to pass (as it pulled out itself to pass the vehicle ahead) seemed to have demonstrated that he was very much not one of those.

People want to believe that they're lucky, that they're being taken care of. It helps them somehow to believe that. Some of them even make up elaborate explanations of why the apparently unlucky ones are really being taken care of anyway, in some mysterious way that surpasses human understanding. The crab that gets sucked in and eaten by a cuttlefish has just gone home to God, by God!

Oh yeah, I'm sure.

3 comments:

  1. People who think that God has his hand in every move they make are are nowhere near the mark (At least for people who believe in the God of the Bible, which I'm assuming your reffering to, and they were alluding to).

    What the Bible says vs. what most christians say is enlightening.

    1 John 5:1 "The whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one.”

    Ecclesiastes 9:11 "...time and unforeseen occurrence befall them all.”

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  2. Thanks, showme. It is so instructive to know what the Bible says about it.

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  3. When my daughter was a teenager, her best friend was killed in an auto accident.

    Last week, a child (twenty-something) in a neighboring congregation also died. Peak of health, seemingly, but some quick reversal was misdiagnosed at the hospital, and she passed away before doctors had figured it out. I don’t quite know all the details.

    Death sucks, especially accidental death, especially death of a young person “who has their whole life ahead of them.” Nobody among us will say any differently. At least the Bible correctly labels death an “enemy.” We are not among the people who try to put a happy face on it, claiming God is “picking flowers” and wants the absolute best for his garden, heedless that you have your own garden you care about.

    Again, my condolences regarding your friend, and his wife.

    On the other hand, public sentiment is what it is. Those five Fairport girls I blogged about last year,

    http://tinyurl.com/5n8kge

    the ones who died in a fiery head on collision, are now known as the “Fairport angels.” The anniversary of their death was marked by ceremonies, speeches, and walk-a-thons.

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