Is It God’s Fault?

I only caught a couple of scenes of a movie called Love Softly Comes, shown recently on the Hallmark Channel; and I have not read the Janette Oke book upon which that movie is based. However, something said in that movie made me think.

I cannot quote verbatim, but the essence was this:

If I, as a parent, am walking with my child and my child simply stumbles and falls, is it my fault? There was nothing in the way for me to guide the child around; I did not even allow something foreseeable to happen. It just happened. I helped the child up, I tended to the child's minor injuries, I comforted the child. If the child had been acting silly, I might have warned the child that stumbling is a common consequence of being silly while walking. Otherwise, I did not scold the child for a simple accident. If God treats us the same way, why do we get so mad at God when bad things happen to us?

Do we try to blame God by calling him omnipotent and omniscient?

The parent certainly had the strength to keep the child from falling… if the parent had known in advance that it would happen. So, is that the key? Does God know in advance that specific things will happen if He does not intervene; or does He just know that falling down is inevitable unless He carries us all the time?

Would we want to be carried all the time by our parent(s)? We would never learn to walk, or our legs would atrophy and we would lose the ability to walk if they did. A parent must let the child walk on its own; and even encourages the child to do so because the parent knows that is best for the child.

awc 2005-12-05 22:32