Epiphany

Something has bothered me for a while.   Job.   Yes, that book all about the man who endured so much, and came out of it with a deeper understanding of who he was and who God was.

I never could understand why God instigated satan against Job.   God, Himself, called Job blameless and upright, so why let this calamity befall him?

I've sought answers here and there, and while I agreed that "God is in control,"  and "we are the clay, He is the potter,"  I just couldn't make it all make sense to me.  I didn't fully grasp or appreciate exactly what that meant.

Today during lunch, I went to my car...I was intending to do a little sketching, but instead I picked up my Bible to read a chapter or two and thought I'd sketch afterwards.   I flipped my bible open, and there was Job 38 staring me in the face. 

4) “ Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?

Tell Me, if you have understanding.

5) Who determined its measurements?

Surely you know!

Or who stretched the line upon it?

6) To what were its foundations fastened?

Or who laid its cornerstone,

7) When the morning stars sang together,

And all the sons of God shouted for joy?

And the questions go on and on and on in Job.

Far deeper than any question I had.

Among the questions I've had in the past is whether or not God is personally involved with us.   Did He just put things into motion and then take His hands off?   All of those questions are laid to rest.   God is in control.   If it happens to me, He allowed it.   I may not always like it, but He has a master plan, and I am part of it.  Even if it breaks my heart.  Even if it forever changes my life.  Even if it kills me.  He allowed it, and there is a reason.  

I think He recorded the story of Job so that I, years and years afterwards, could realize that He, ultimately, is in control and there is none like Him.

Everyone else may have had that figured out.   

It took me a while. 

Who indeed.

I feel a poem coming on.