First Prayer Answered

There was room at the inn for the young couple with child (translated: Jeremy and Sarah are now in Philadelphia where they found an opening at the Ronald McDonald House).

And while we wait, hoping and praying that all will be well, here is something that Ron has been thinking about…

I, Ron, had to laugh when I read this headline the other day: “The universe is expanding faster than it should be.”

“How dare the universe disobey?” said a leading astronomer. “It is frustrating that the cosmos is out of line with how things should work.”

Lest I mislead you to believe that the scientists thought such things, the fact is that National Geographic simply wrote a poor headline – poor, in my opinion, because it can be easily misinterpreted. No one really thinks the universe is bad. Instead, the content of the article makes clear that the scientists are humbly realizing that their predictive models are flawed – there are factors that are missing.

We, by contrast, do indeed act as though the universe (or at least the world) is misbehaving because things don’t go the way we think they should. How many times people say, “this isn’t the way it should be.” It isn’t normal for a child to precede his parents in death – that isn’t the way it is supposed to be. Retirement should be a time to be able to travel, not for a man or woman to be tied down caring for a spouse who has had a stroke or who is experiencing Alzheimer’s. (And that is just my beginning for what could be a long list of things that don’t unfold the way they “should.”)

If we lived in a perfect world, we would be right. Those who expect the world to “behave” are missing a huge factor that make things the way they are – sin. This is a broken, fallen world. But it is also a world in which God uses even broken things for our good – the good of making us more like his son. And in that there is hope. And there is joy that comes when we accept those things that God won’t change (at least, won’t change now). And there is great joy in knowing that God more than countered when he added another factor – sending his son as a human baby, who would offer his life, leading to the eventual creation of a new world where all is well and as it should be.

One more thought: Despite how broken this world is. It is amazing how often things go well. Which leads us back to thanking you for praying with us that our other requests will also be answered in the affirmative.