To be Fair: Agreeing with what is thought to be right or acceptable. :Treating people in a way that does not favor some over others. :Not to harsh or critical.

This is the final in a series exploring the fairness of God. If you missed the first three parts of this series I recommend your read them before continuing. You can find them at: Is God Not Fair? Part 1: Why Me? Why Them? Why This? , Is God Not Fair? Part 2: The Holiness of God and Is God Not Fair? Part 3: The Justice of God

What Joy!

What Great Exceeding Happiness to see His Children Come to Him!

He made a way, through the impossible, and so many children reached out and chose Him!

With so much happiness He welcomed them.

But there were still so many to reach!

And Creation itself was still so broken from the death that had entered it.

Pain and Death and Destruction were all still in the world, and all still seeking to cut off His children from Himself.

A war was being waged and the prize was the souls of His children.

And so He called those who had already come to Him. He called them to battle.

He called them to live.

To live in a world that wasn’t fair, wasn’t kind, wasn’t right. But to live to be fair, to be kind, to be right. And to always, always, be reaching out to those who were still lost.

And to help them, The One who was not limited to Oneness took another part of Himself, and placed it in each of them, to be with them always. To strengthen, encourage, and empower them in this war that wasn’t fair.

And He, in His immensity, being beyond time, looked into the tapestry that was time and knew all the unfair things that would happen to His beloved children, and found ways to use and redeem and bring hope and life.

In a world of darkness and death, He brought Light and Life.

In a world of disease and despair, He brought Hope and Healing.

He stormed the gates, the impossible gates, and He brought them down.

All with His Grace.

~

In this last part of this series we look at God’s Grace.

Because the world IS harsh and critical.

But God offers Grace to get through it.

I started this series looking at four stories that some might call not fair. Stories of sickness, even death. I asked if it was fair that these things happened. I asked if God is fair.

The thing is, it isn’t fair. It’s not fair for the young to be struck down by cancer, it’s not fair for sickness to strike undeserved.

But the thing is, sickness doesn’t come from God, pain doesn’t come from Him either. But God does offer hope in the middle of it. Grace in the middle of it all.

He promises to always be with us. He promises to help us through. He promises us that when this unfair life is over we can enter into a life with Him where such things will never touch us again.

‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Revelation 21:4

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope that through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 1 Peter 1:3-6

And He asks us to reach out to others so they can be with us in this paradise as well.

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 1 John 3:16

To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. 1 Peter 2:21

In His Grace He will even use all these negative and unfair things in order to help us grow, to teach us, and to use us to reach out to others. In exchange for our sufferings He gives us everything He is.

And that honestly is the most anyone can give, their very selves. For God Himself to give us Himself is the greatest gift of all. He offers all of this because He loves us. So very much.

This series has brought me on a surprising journey. And it’s taught me a different way of looking at my questions.

You see this series started with a story. The story of me, and of those around me.

And that’s a reasonable thing, because our questions so often come up out of our stories.

But what surprised me is that the answer came out of a story too.

The answer was found in God’s story.

And His story is full of love and grace and beauty.

But also grief and trial and loss.

So often we don’t take the time to think about His story. To understand Him as a person. A person who loves and grieves and cries and feels as much, if not more, than we do.

So often when we look at the pain in our lives and then turn to God with the question “why?” we don’t stop to think that our pain may not be so unique to ourselves as we think it is. That He may actually be suffering with us and have suffered for us doesn’t enter into our minds.

When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” For “you were all sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. 1 Peter 2:23-25

Let me ask you something. Was it fair that Christ suffered what He did? No. It wasn’t fair to Him to suffer for our mistakes and our sins. But He did it anyway. Why?

When I first looked at that definition of fair I thought, “How cool! God’s Righteousness lines up with the first part, His Justice lines up with the second, and His Grace lines up with the third.” But as I went to show His Righteousness and Justice and Grace I’ve discovered that all three of those things line up with something else: His Love.

I tried at first to be clinical, but I couldn’t, because the answer wasn’t in a clinical definition, it was in a person, the person that is Him.

So here is our choice: Do we trust in His love? Do we choose His life? Do we trust in His plan? Do we let go of our lives? Do we let go of our need to make things “fair” and trust in the Only One who IS?

Please, I beg you, if you are suffering, instead of holding on to the injustice of it all, take the time to get to know Him. Understand His story and what He suffered for your sake.

He Loves You.

I guess that is always the answer, no matter what the question is.

God Loves You.

~Joy Aletheia Stevens

Photo Credit: Holy Cross at Sunrise by Sean MacEntee (CC BY 2.0)

Photo Credit: “It was love, not nails, that held Jesus to the Cross.” ~Rick Warren It’s amazing what kind of result u get when u take photos on rainy day. God bless. By Leland Francisco (CC BY 2.0)    

Photo Credit: Peace by Alyssa L. Miller (CC BY 2.0)