“All sunshine makes the desert.”
– Arabian Proverb (Leaves of Gold, pg. 112)
I am convinced that God finds the human race to be fickle. You. Me. Your neighbor. My spouse. We say we want one thing, then complain about it when we get it. Our nature is the same as the Hebrew people who cried out to God for deliverance from harsh Egyptian enslavement, only to later complain about the lack of variety in their traveling food once set free.
This is being written early in the morning during a substantial rainfall. I woke up to the sound of rain as it began. As you might guess, my first thought was in the form of complaint. “So much for the yard work I was going to do today!” My complaint actually goes directly against a maxim I have adopted since living in Texas. “Never complain about rain in Texas; you don’t know when it will come again.” We all enjoy a sunny, seventy degree day, but put enough of those days back to back and, as the proverb indicates, we find ourselves in a desert.
The wise king Solomon was alert to the value, perhaps necessity, of unpleasant things in life when he wrote, “There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every matter under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). Included in his “every matter” were things like death, weeping, and separation. This “all things” way of thinking does not make us feel good, but Solomon was just being honest as he endeavored to make sense of life. Later, the apostle Paul would weave this “all things” thinking into his theology of God’s sovereign way of working in the lives of His children. When he tells us in Romans 8:28 that “all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose,” he doesn’t mean that all things will be enjoyable, or even that we will understand them when they happen. Paul is confidently telling us that God is a good, good Father who knows how to give good things to his children (see Matthew 7:11).
You may be wondering if I’m serious about the “all things.” I am. I know it is hard to digest, as some things among the all things can be really tough things. Rain is an easy analogy. We might complain about it if it comes at the wrong time, or too much in one helping, but we don’t have to think long before remembering all the benefit we gain from it. Other things are not that easily reconciled. We do know that some hardship is allowed in order to build perseverance and proven character within us (Romans 5:3-4). Beyond this, it is possible that the good God is working in us is to foster a deep yearning for new heavens and new earth, groaning with all creation while anxiously awaiting our full adoption, the redemption of our bodies (see Romans 8:22-25).
God is good, all the time. And if you are His redeemed child, you can confidently say that God is doing good all the time.
See you along the Winding Path.
The Winding Path 