In the beginning God created heaven and earth. Now the earth was a formless void, there was darkness over the deep, with a divine wind sweeping over the waters. God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. God saw that light was good, and God divided light from darkness. (Gen 1:1-4)
To explain away some awful event of suffering in the lives of people, I’ve heard (good-minded) people say, “everything happens for a reason,” or “Time heals all wounds.” I do not think so. To think so, is to say that God factored evil acts into his grand plan for us. Just because we experience evil, it would be flawed to think this is how God decided best to direct history. Abba is a life giver, never a destroyer
From the first few verses of Genesis we see that God is the source of (natural) darkness and light.
Evil is the perversion of God’s good gift of free will. It arises from the choices made by imperfect people. So, what we do matters. Also throughout scripture darkness is used as a symbol of sin and its effects. It is often contrasted with light, as a symbol of forgiveness and the presence of God. Important is that God is able to be present and known, even in the darkest aspects of our world.
And the judgement is this: though the light has come into the world people have preferred darkness to the light because their deeds were evil. And indeed, everybody who does wrong hates the light and avoids it, to prevent his actions from being shown up; but whoever does the truth comes out into the light, so that what he is doing may plainly appear as done in God.’ (Jn 3:19-21)
We are all imperfect and wounded in some way. Who has not been on the receiving end of someone’s darkness and who has not harmed another by our own darkness?
Time does not heal, God does. But it does not happen by some kind of spiritual magic or without us. We must enter into our pain to heal.
Jesus declared publicly: Whoever believes in me believes not in me but in the one who sent me, and whoever sees me, sees the one who sent me. I have come into the world as light, to prevent anyone who believes in me from staying in the dark any more. If anyone hears my words and does not keep them faithfully, it is not I who shall judge such a person, since I have come not to judge the world, but to save the world: anyone who rejects me and refuses my words has his judge already: the word itself that I have spoken will be his judge on the last day. For I have not spoken of my own accord; but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and what to speak, and I know that his commands mean eternal life. (Jn 12:44-50)
To believe in Jesus is to accept that we too will experience the cross in our life which in itself does not make our suffering any easier but challenges us to endure according to the promises of his Word and to know that the gift of eternal life is now.
When I hurt, “…I cry out to Yahweh in my distress; he will rescue me from my plight, he sends out his word and cures me, and rescues my life from the abyss.” (ref Ps 107:19-20)
There is a particular phrase in Matthew’s gospel (Matt 5:38-46);
‘You have heard how it was said, You will love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say this to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you; so that you may be children of your Father in heaven, for he causes his sun to rise on the bad as well as the good, and sends down rain to fall on the upright and the wicked alike.’
In our world, if we are assaulted we don’t turn the other cheek. We fight back, at the very least, demanding restitution and damages for injuries. Justice demands that perpetrators of injustice pay for the offenses committed. In our world, offenses have to be rectified.
In those times that I have been deeply hurt by betrayal from those close to me, I can easily forgive 98% – oftentimes never even taking the offense. For some reason, I always have. But it’s that last 2% of me that wants that person to know (deeply) how much their actions have hurt me. I want them to feel guilty before I fully forgive. That is my form of justice, …but its not of God. There is no such thing as human justice in the kingdom of God because in God’s world there is no such thing as an offense. Think about it.
p.s. Take a moment and pray for those who have persecuted and caused you great pain. If that person has since deceased, instead ask them to pray for you.
Healing will come not because “of time” but “in time.”
