Have You Never Hated God

My daughter is a young woman now, but there still are times when she needs her mommy and daddy!

This is about one of those times.

As a kindergarten teacher she is exposed to all sorts of viruses and bacteria that little kids get and bring into the classroom; sure enough she developed a severe case of strep throat.  She came home for the week to sleep in her old room and get some of her mom's homemade chicken soup.

When I got up Friday morning she was crying; two days of the antibiotic had done nothing to help and she was worse than the night before.  Her mother, who had a full day ahead, didn't look that much better.

I quickly rearranged my day to spend driving my daughter around hoping to find a doctor who would agree to see her immediately.  At one in the afternoon we were finally able to track down an ears, nose and throat specialist; I was even allowed to accompany her into the appointment.

During the examination, the doctor asked my daughter how bad the pain was on a scale of 1 to 10.  She replied that it had been an eight this morning, but was now a ten.

I almost fell off my chair and my initial thought was that she was severely exaggerating, but on consideration I realized that in her short life she probably hadn't experienced that much pain and this sore throat probably was a ten to her.

Everything is so very relative.

Wait until she experiences child birth! She will definitely have a different scale then.

I pondered and realized that, everything being relative, that it might be hard for me to understand the pain that some parents experience.

After all …

My kids don't go to Sandy Hook Elementary School.
I didn't go to see The Dark Knight Rises there in Aurora Colorado.
I wasn't near the finish line of the Boston Marathon bombing.
I don't know anyone who worked in the World Trade Center.

What do you say to parents that sent their child off to school or to the movies never to have them come back?   What do you say to a young mother who cries out to God, "Dear God, why do you hate me so?"

Do you tell them it was God's will?  

You do, only at great peril!

It is better to stay silent!

The loss of a child is so personal and the grief is so devastating that I can't blame parents for wanting to lash out at God.   The idea that their good, loving God let this terrible loss happen is overwhelming.  How could a benevolent God let this evil event happen?

 I've seen people who don't even believe in God use these times to take His name in vain.  Even Thomas Jefferson wasn't spared from these emotions.  When his wife died, he was so distraught that he questioned his faith.

The answer of course is that God gave all of us this crazy thing called free will and, some people are just plain evil; or maybe they are just evil some of the time.  When these people act on their evil impulses good people may suffer and sometimes die; they are just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The sad thing is that a grieving parent is not ready to deal with this idea.  In fact, they may never be ready and they may never stop hating God.

***Blog Update ***

My daughter just had her first child and I'm sure her pain scale has now been readjusted!

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If you liked this blog post I know you will love my Hating God Trilogy. Please go to Amazon where you can read for free “Hating God”, “Ignoring God”, and “Loving God” if you subscribe to Kindleunlimited.