And We Shall Understand

Perhaps we are all aware, and somewhat troubled at times, at the seeming injustices and unexplained adversities and unanswered questions of life. Our questioning may be caused by someone who has lived what to us seems to be a good and sound and sensible life, who becomes seriously ill, or who has some undeserved setback, or meets tragic misfortune. There are so many such questions: What of people born with handicaps? What of those who are injured by the actions of others? What of those who are taken at a time when they seem to us to be needed most? What of those whose life is cut exceedingly short while some live longer than they sometimes seem to want to live? What of promising young people who are taken in the years of their youth? What of cherished children who are suddenly seized by illness or accident? When we see what can occur that we cannot readily reconcile, our souls sometimes cry out in questioning as to why such things are so. Why? We could speculate perhaps upon a thousand possible answers without being certainly sure we had the right one. But as to these and all other unanswered questions ⎯ of which there are many ⎯ as to all of them: We must have faith. And as to all of them perhaps we should once more remind ourselves that life is a process and not an ultimate end. It is a reaching for, but not an ultimate arrival. If life were bounded only by birth and death, the seeming injustice of some of the daily happenings we see would never for us find adequate explanation. But sometime at some turn in the eternal journey, with a just God watching over all, we shall understand all that is not now understood. And when we know, the answer will seem to us to be as simple as the answer to some things we now know, which once were not understood. And we shall be satisfied and shall come to the quiet conviction that, having done our best, we can leave what we cannot change in the hands of a kind and just and merciful Father, and not be bitter about those who receive more or less from life than they seem to deserve.