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This has been a difficult week to discuss the concept of Free Will with my children.\u00a0 Perhaps it is Divine Providence that we hit upon this topic in the same week that the news channels are all running footage of the attacks of September 11th.\u00a0 My 10 and 11 year olds are fascinated by the events of that day, but they keep coming back to the troubling question of \u201cWhy did God let that happen?\u201d<\/p>\n
I struggle with an answer to that question.\u00a0 How do I explain to my children and myself how a loving God could let such atrocities occur?\u00a0 Why doesn\u2019t he stop them?\u00a0 He could prevent all this pain and heartbreak, but He doesn\u2019t.\u00a0 How is that love?<\/p>\n
Last night, by 10 year old answered it for me beautifully.\u00a0 He kept sliding down the banister.\u00a0 I hate this.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t seem to care what I think.\u00a0 The stairs are steep; the banister is slick and shiny; sliding is fun and exciting.\u00a0 No amount of warnings, punishments, or lectures have convinced him to give up his sliding completely.\u00a0 We have tried, his father and I.\u00a0 The child just won\u2019t listen.\u00a0 He is obstinate and the temptation is greater than any threat or warning we can make.<\/p>\n
Last night, he slid down and landed on his 2 year old brother.\u00a0 #6 thudded on the ground and bonked his head on the wall.\u00a0 Crying, tears, and pain were the result of #3\u2019s defiance.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the consequences were not visited upon him, but upon his baby brother.<\/p>\n
It was as I sat cuddling and consoling #6 that it dawned on me\u2026.God is a parent, too.\u00a0 He, too, watches His children disobey.\u00a0 He warns them; He points them toward the right path; He calls to them to change their ways, and just like me, He has to deal with the aftermath of their defiance.<\/p>\n
God could have struck the hijackers dead on 9\/11.\u00a0 They could have all keeled over from massive heart attacks.\u00a0 He could have swatted the planes from the sky.\u00a0 He did not.\u00a0 He instead offered them mercy and gave them every opportunity to repent and change their minds, right up until the moment of their deaths.\u00a0 He loved them enough to give them the chance to turn to Him even as He watched the horrible things they did.\u00a0 He was their Father, the Father of disobedient sons.<\/p>\n
He was also the Father of those passengers on the planes.\u00a0 He called to them to rise up and offer themselves for the chance to protect their brothers and sisters on the ground.\u00a0 Those happy few in Pennsylvania heard the call of God and answered Him willingly, and became their Father\u2019s pride.\u00a0 The same too of the first responders in the Towers.\u00a0 They were their Father\u2019s mercy incarnate, hurrying the living toward safety even at the predictable cost of their own lives.\u00a0 What joy for a parent in kind, generous and obedient sons and daughters.<\/p>\n
Part of being a parent is allowing your children to make horrendous and disastrous mistakes.\u00a0 Often, we can see the pitfalls long before our children get to them.\u00a0 We can call and call to our beloved ones, but there are times when they will not hear our voice.\u00a0 Then all a parent can do is love the injured, rebuke the disobedient, and try to ameliorate the damage that was done.<\/p>\n
All I could do for my 2 year old last night was hold him close and kiss his owies.\u00a0 I could have prevented it completely by handcuffing my older boy to my side, but imprisonment would not teach him self-control and to listen to his parents\u2019 council.\u00a0 Instead, he would spend the whole of his life trying to escape from me and the prison I had built.\u00a0 We have to love them both, the guilty and the victim.\u00a0 We have to be parents to them both, just as God is parent to us all.<\/p>\n
As I explained this to my sons this morning, the elder boy asked \u201cBut where was God\u2019s mercy and comfort on 9\/11?\u00a0 Where was the hand of God?\u201d\u00a0 It was then that I remembered the initial news reports of the tens of thousands who had died.\u00a0 The initial suspected death tolls were a staggering 30,000.\u00a0 Violence, hate and disobedience killed 3,000; but love and mercy saved 10 times that many.\u00a0 Then, God sent the entire Christian world to love, pray for and grieve with the families left behind.\u00a0 He sent His children, His beloved, to be His love for them on Earth that they would know they were not alone.\u00a0 In those first horrible moments and days, they were not. What Father could leave his children alone and abandoned in their pain?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not that God let it happen, it\u2019s that His children were disobedient and ignored the warnings of a wise and loving Father.\u00a0 In a tragedy, it is so easy to focus on the His power not exercised and lose focus on the love poured out.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This has been a difficult week to discuss the concept of Free Will with my children.\u00a0 Perhaps it is Divine Providence that we hit upon this topic in the same week that the news channels are all running footage of the attacks of September 11th.\u00a0 My 10 and 11 year olds are fascinated by the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1979,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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