The concept of pain and suffering is one that comes up quite often in conversations about belief in God. The truth is some people go through unbelievable amounts of pain in this world which is not always the product of someone’s malefic intent. When a tsunami hits, and snatches parents from their children, or children from their parents, when a 4 year old child has to deal with a degenerative disease that only leads to death, when a 22 year old is diagnosed with a brain tumor, when someone battles mental illness and addictions for years without end. In these circumstances, we ask ourselves, Is there a God? How could there possibly be a God? How can a God who loves me see this and allow it.
There are a number of concepts that exist to explain pain or to provide answers to some of these questions from a biblical sense but there is one concept that does not necessarily have an answer or an explanation. A lot of times, the most honest answer to the questions of this world is “I don’t know”. I don’t know why a 4 year old child has to battle an awful illness all the way to death, or why a young adult has to suffer mental illness to the point where self-harm is the only relief available, or why that mother had to bury her 4 children on the same day.
What I know is that the God of the Bible is not unaware. You see the God of the Bible is not a theory, or a concept or a force. Actually he might be all of that, but he is so much more than that. The God of the bible is a person, he is a personal God.
This story in my devotional wrecked me this morning. “High on the moors in the Welsh highland, two ministers met a young shepherd boy who had impaired hearing and was illiterate. They explained that Jesus wanted to be *his shepherd*, who would always look after him as he, the boy, looked after his sheep. They taught him to repeat the words, ‘The Lord is *my* shepherd’ (Ps 23:1), using the fingers of his right hand to help him remember, starting with his thumb and then a finger for each word. They told him to pause at the fourth word *my* and remember, ‘this psalm was meant for *me*’. Some years later, one of them was passing through that village and asked after the shepherd boy. The previous winter there had been terrible storms and the boy had died on the hills, buried in a snowdrift. The villager telling the story said ‘There was one thing, however that we didn’t understand. When his body was discovered he was holding *the fourth finger of his right hand*’.”
When you think of this shepherd boy buried under a mountain of snow, afraid and ‘alone’. No one could be there with him in that.moment. No family or friend to hold his hand and comfort him. And you think of him holding up each finger of his hand and declaring ‘The Lord is MY shepherd’. Dwelling on that fourth word “MY”. He is MINE. He sees ME, He is aware of ME, He is conscious of ME. In this you understand what it means for God to be a personal God. ‘When I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil because you are with ME.’ (Ps 23:4)
The beautiful thing is that it doesn’t end there. At the center of this faith, this belief, there is a cross. The God of the bible does not only say I see you, I know you, I am with you, He also says ‘I know what you are going through’. He did not remain distant from this pain we would have to bear. He came down from his throne and died a death of pain and suffering on the cross. And on the third day he rose again. As he rose, so did all his promises. ‘And I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever’. (Ps 23:6)
The reassurance of the Christian faith is this “Even when we don’t understand the why, we can rest in the fact that He sticks closest to us in our pain”. And some times, many times, that is ENOUGH.
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