Why God, did you allow that to happen? The question rings in your head and just will not stop. Why? Why? Why do bad things happen to good people? Why did He allow the mother of four children to die and leave a young father to raise up all those children? Why did my wife die and He leave me? Why? Why? Why?

I have personally lost a bunch of loved ones this year and last. Also lost acquaintances too. I still feel the losses to this day. But:

There is a dozen reasons at least, I could think of off the top of my head to answer that question “Why?”. Let me unpack just a few to start the conversation.

First: No matter how good someone seems, Jesus said there is none good but God (Psalms 39:5, Matthew 19:17, Mark 10:18, Luke 18:19). The person probably is or was pretty good in our accounting, but God sees the heart and in man there is no good thing outside of Jesus in our heart. So, we can’t even claim that because it is still His goodness. Yes, we have His goodness but the best we can do without Him is as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). No, you can’t understand God in His fullness. His ways are much greater than ours, and He is beyond our comprehension (Job 33:14, Ecclesiastes 11:5, Isaiah 55:8-9, 1 Corinthians 2:9).

Second: If you are a Christian, He gives us this promise: that all things work together for good to those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose (Psalms 62:8, Romans 8:28, Philippians 1:6, Hebrews 13:21). And, no good thing will He withhold from His children. We either trust in Him and His judgments or we trust in ourselves. I hope and pray I choose to trust Jesus in all things.

Third: All life is in His hands. We will not live one second less than what He wills or one second more (Acts 17:24-28, Revelation 4:11, Hebrews 1:1-3).

Fourth: Only God knows the future and holds it in His hands. Only He knows what is ahead of us and only He knows what is best for us (Jeremiah 29:11-13, 1 John 3:20). He saw the future and decided in our/their favor and took them home to be with Him. Do we really want to second guess God? Do we consider ourselves wiser than God? Yes. We wish we knew what He knows but the fact is: we are not God.