Response for pushingxthroughxdisaster’s Divine Protection, a cartoon that challenges us to look at the bigger picture... 

Trials will befall us.  Every stone that hits us, though we writhe in awkwardness, discomfort, or pain, is allowed by Him for our benefit.  If we are true children of the Lord, if we have given our life to Him, He will allow trials to reveal our areas of weakness, where we are imperfect in the face of His glorious perfection.  He will allow trials through this wretched fallen life, to strengthen us, to purify us, to sanctify us, and to bring us closer to Him.  **Read Hebrews 12:3-11, and also Proverbs 3:11-12**

He is in control - of every circumstance, of every stimulus, from the moment we awake to the moment we awake again - every second, every day.  That Jesus would cover us from boulders we cannot even imagine the size of, but allow a few stones - always under His loving control - is an oft incredulously challenged notion.  We all seem to wonder why God would allow pain for those He loves.  Yet acceptance of His perfect will comes not with understanding ourselves, but rather with understanding who He is.  He is a loving father, and if you have children of your own, you can understand the many-faceted principle of lovingly guiding that precious little soul, more dear to you than life itself, through lessons necessary to instill and shape character, while at the same time heartbreaking to endure for you as well as your treasured child.

This loving-Father aspect is such that we can only embrace securely through the knowledge of full assurance of our salvation, full trust that His will is to perfect us in Himself and bring us to further complete trust in His provision, even when He is providing the trial.  Yet His love encompasses us, He is ever-present, ever-beckoning us closer to Him, and He uses trials to strip us of our own destructive tendencies, to show us our need for Him and to impart to us gratitude for His act of justification.  We so often tend to lean on our own understanding, which we must eventually all come to concede, is an understanding incomplete of ever being able to see His complete picture.  He is the only one capable of seeing the whole picture – He wrote the story, from beginning to end, and through is magnificent divine love, He gifted me existence and a journey that, if not honoring Him will only succeed in dishonoring both Him and myself.  Somehow, we must all come to the hope that is found in His lovingkindness, His mercy, His omnipresent transcendence of all that we could possibly comprehend, and have the courage to accept His gift of life and His promise of eternal, heavenly glory.

Like Job, who was allowed by the Lord to suffer excruciating pain in the loss of everything he had, even to the point of his physical body being enveloped in huge sores ~ the Lord allowed this to show Satan His righteous servant in Job despite Satan’s multitude of challenges; to show Job how big HE is and where Job himself was lacking in understanding of the Lord’s complete power, and to bring Job to complete acceptance of the Lord's omnipotence and gratitude for the Lord’s love for Job.

As Job was challenged by the LORD, we can find rest in His infinitude, as from His very lips come assurance of His power, from Job 37:

"AT this also my heart trembles,

And leaps from its place. Hear attentively the thunder of His voice,

And the rumbling that comes from His mouth.

He sends it forth under the whole heaven,

His lightning to the ends of the earth.

After it a voice roars;

He thunders with His majestic voice,

And He does not restrain them when His voice is heard.

God thunders marvelously with His voice;

He does great things which we cannot comprehend.

For He says to the snow, 'Fall on the earth';

Likewise to the gentle rain and the heavy rain of His strength.

He seals the hand of every man,

That all men may know His work.

The beasts go into dens,

And remain in their lairs.

From the chamber of the south comes the whirlwind,

And cold from the scattering winds of the north.

By the breath of God ice is given,

And the broad waters are frozen.

Also with moisture He saturates the thick clouds;

He scatters His bright clouds.

And they swirl about, being turned by His guidance,

That they may do whatever He commands them

On the face of the whole earth.

He causes it to come,

Whether for correction,

Or for His land,

Or for mercy.

"Listen to this, O Job;

Stand still and consider the wondrous works of God.

Do you know when God dispatches them,

And causes the light of His cloud to shine?

Do you know how the clouds are balanced,

Those wondrous works of Him who is perfect in knowledge?

Why are your garments hot,

When He quiets the earth by the south wind?

With Him, have you spread out the skies,

Strong as a cast metal mirror?

"Teach us what we should say to Him,

For we can prepare nothing because of the darkness.

Should He be told that I wish to speak?

If a man were to speak, surely he would be swallowed up.

Even now men cannot look at the light when it is bright in the skies,

When the wind has passed and cleared them.

He comes from the north as golden splendor;

With God is awesome majesty.

As for the Almighty, we cannot find Him;

He is excellent in power,

In judgment and abundant justice;

He does not oppress.

Therefore men fear Him;

He shows no partiality to any who are wise of heart."

For further assurance of God’s power, as He establishes His own authority, read Job 38, 39, 40, and 41, where the Lord further challenges Job with questions such as:

“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?... To what were its foundations fashioned?”

“Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place, that it might take hold of the ends of the earth?”

“Where is the way to the dwelling of light? And darkness, where is its place, that you may take it to its territory, that you may know the paths to its home? Do you know it, because you were born then, or because the number of your days is great?”

“Will the wild ox be willing to serve you? Will he bed by your manger?... Have you given the horse strength? Have you clothed his neck with thunder? Can you frighten him like a locust?... Does the hawk fly by your wisdom, and spread its wings toward the south?”

“Shall the one who contends with the Almighty correct Him?

The Lord is perfect and powerful, and in today’s attitude of making the all-powerful God into an image that fits the understanding of our limited human capacity, we all fall to the despair too often, that God is somehow not strong enough to control all of our circumstances.  True, if He could ever fit into the limits of our understanding, He would indeed be too small to direct every path.  But fear not, He orders the stars, the wind, the beasts, the atoms, the flowers, the hair on our head. 

In His own words, Jesus says:

"Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds?

"And which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

"If you then are not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest?

"Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

"If then God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith?

"And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind.

"For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things.

"But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you.

"Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

~ Luke 12:24-32

With a heightened, secure knowledge of who HE is, we can rest in the storms, and know that every event, even those we perceive and experience as painful, is also under the supreme control of His loving, magnificent hands.