The other day while visiting Pilot Mountain, my youngest daughter noticed a ladybug who had found himself ensnared in the sticky threads of a spider web. The poor thing was still alive, and I hated to think about it’s 8-legged fate that was certain to unfold later that evening. So, I carefully removed the bug from his sticky situation and watched him crawl away.
I was feeling pretty good about myself, the super hero who saved one innocent lady bug’s day. But when I told my husband about my good deed, he quickly took the wind out of my sails, saying, “But, what about the spider?”
He was right! As much as I hated to see the poor ladybug suffer, wasn’t I causing the spider to suffer, too, by taking away his dinner? Worse yet, maybe it was a mommy spider who needed the nutrients to feed her babies. So, instead of feeling good about the ladybug, now I had a whole family of arachnids tugging on my conscience.
This whole situation reminded me once again, that the things I see are only a small part of a much bigger plan. It’s easy to look at the suffering, injustice and evil around us and shake our fist at the sky, wondering why a loving God would allow such treachery in the world he created. We do this because we cannot possibly see or understand the complexity or magnitude of God’s sovereign plans for this world. When we experience things that we ourselves have deemed bad or evil we cannot comprehend how these things can fit into God’s good plans, or the plans of God who is good.
However, we cannot rely on the way we perceive things as our standard for God’s righteousness! Remember these words from Isaiah 55: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Since we cannot comprehend His thoughts and His ways, we have to trust Him. And He is certainly worthy of that trust.
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