"What I believe about God is the most important thing about me" --A.W. Tozer
As I looked across the table at her, I could still see the pain in her eyes. She had been rejected years ago, but the hurt was still fresh. Linda Sullivan, my mother-in-law had grown up in a Christian family and had harbored dreams of working with young children, showing them the love of Christ. She met a young man at a Christian youth camp and soon married him. He was going to be a lawyer, but he could have been a pastor. That's how people felt about him. When they both walked down the aisle it would be the beginning of a great life together.
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But, Linda's dreams were shattered only a few years into her marriage. She was pregnant with their third child when her husband announced that he was walking out on the marriage. He was in love with someone else. Another man.
When I look at her to this day, I see a survivor, a woman who has been through life's worst trials. Linda had to work two jobs to support her children. She saw two of her children get involved in drugs and alcohol abuse. And three years ago, she nearly died from a quadruple bypass.
When I first heard my mother-in-law's story, my first thought was, That's really unfair! All she wanted was a good, Christian family and instead she had to patch together a dysfunctional survival.
When God Isn't Fair
In a parable He shared with his disciples, Jesus seemed to suggest the very notion the Heavenly Father does not always deal with his children in a way that seem equitable. In Matthew 20, Jesus paints a portrait of the Kingdom that looks and sounds so patently unjust that were it a reality today, most Christians would scream out at the injustice. But, amazingly, Jesus used this as a picture of how God deals with His children.
Jesus tells the story of a farmer, who represents God. Needing to harvest a bumper crop in his vineyard, he goes into the marketplace and hires a crew of laborers. He promises them a fair day's wage.
Source: Crosswalk.com
Daniel Darling is the author of Teen People of the Bible. Visit him at danieldarling.com.
