Is God Mean?

Why do bad things happen to good people? In Genesis 3:17-19, God made it clear that, for man: “Cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you…..for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” God never promised Eden again for this rock, the third planet from the sun. It rains on all people. But God inspired Paul to write to the Romans: “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” His purpose is to conform us more and more to Jesus, our example of perfection. Of course, perfection for us is impossible, but we can become better people day by day. We lost a grandson at two years and eight months. He had to have a heart transplant at 17 months of age and we were blessed to have him for another fifteen months – so we could really know his spirit. Was God mean? On the contrary, Josh was blessed with the heart of another boy – from another family dealing with the reality of life on this planet. During the time we still had him he taught me about courage and gratitude…to all the doctors and nurses who poked him each day for blood tests and medicine picks he always said, “Thank you.” Such lessons we learned from a two-year-old! God is benevolent, abounding in grace.