Job 2:10 ”Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?”
Much of life comes as a mixed bag. Highs, lows, clarity, confusion, peace, anxiety. This past holiday I experienced a little bit of everything.
Our plans at Christmas entailed driving to Ohio to visit my brother and his family. After celebrating with them a few days, we would then travel to Nashville to be with our son, daughter-in-law, and new baby grandson. But plans didn’t work out as expected. I started coughing on the way to my brother’s. It became so severe that we stopped at a drug store to pick up cough syrup…and a covid test. We rejoiced when the covid results came back negative. But for the next couple days, my energy level evaporated. Clearly, I had contracted some kind of bug. So we decided to cancel our trip to Nashville, forgoing the celebration of our grandson’s first Christmas. Could it get any worse?
Oh yes, it could.
As we drove back home to Pennsylvania, I found out my husband had purchased (and subsequently cancelled) concert tickets to see Manheim Steamroller while we were in Nashville. Long an item on my “bucket list,” he wanted to surprise me for Christmas. Then my brother and sister-in-law both started coughing. This took on even greater significance because my brother was scheduled for major surgery a week later. If he contracted the flu, his procedure might have to be postponed.
Job experienced far more disappointment in life than I did this Christmas. But when his wife encouraged him to curse God because of the trouble, he rebuked her. He recognized life in a fallen world contains good as well as evil. Who are we to blame God when difficulties come our way? That would only cause him (and us) to get stuck in the negatives.
So things this past holiday didn’t turn out as we planned. But by God’s grace, our troubles weren’t the final word.
We recovered from the flu. Our son and family flew up from Nashville for a belated celebration. And my brother’s surgery took place as scheduled. We even have a gift card for the Nashville Performing Arts Center, good for five years!
Friend, don’t let trials define your life. God is always working for your good. We can trust him, even when life throws us a mixed bag.