Thursday, February 26, 2009

Good Gifts

I am sitting at the Starbucks, in a Chapters store.
At the very next table to the left of me, there are three deaf people. I know they are deaf because the one guy is gesticulating like crazy.
In all seriousness, he is either choking on the Starbucks muffin he is eating or he is deaf.
The other two are listening to – or, [pardon me] watching him, and occasionally using sign language also.
But mostly it is this one guy, really telling them a story that involves a nearly airborne amount of gyrations.
ALL THREE OF THESE PEOPLE CANNOT HEAR ANYTHING.

If I were an all-powerful being, I would wiggle my nose at them [like Samantha in Bewitched… remember that show on TV?] and bing-bang-boom – instantly all of them would hear.
End of story.
Now [watch me extrapolate like there’s no tomorrow ]… umm, if the God of the Bible is actually a Being as described in that book, then here is what I must conclude:
He is way too busy.
Granted, he may be more creative than I am, and maybe even more loving, in some sort of real convoluted way, but how can he be more thoughtful [in the sense of considerate] than I am?

“If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”
-- Matt.7:11 –

This Scripture is, in my opinion, an example of a statement that doesn’t make good sense.
Firstly, I am not evil. Not that I am perfect or anything, but it’s just that “evil” is not an adjective that can be applied to me in any sort of unqualified manner, as this Scripture is doing.
Secondly, the gist of the above verse is that God gives good gifts to everyone. And not only so, but he does this in a measure that would far exceed what any earthly mortal person [like me] would give.
What does that mean, though?

Is deafness a good gift? I am not blaming God for anyone’s afflictions, but all I am asking is… what good does it do to believe that God gives these good gifts when the evidence of living shows us that no matter what we ask God for [in prayer, for instance]…. the “getting” of it is so unlikely as to be perhaps even more unlikely than if you had just not asked for anything in the first place!
Let’s be real now for a minute.
Please do not react emotionally to what I am saying, but rather, try to react in a rational way.
If you do so, I trust that you will agree with me that if I am to assume that my own ability to hear things is a “gift” from God, I have to simultaneously conclude that for some reason he is withholding this same “gift” from three people sitting at the table next to me, in Starbucks tonight.

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2 comments:

Pala said...

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? - Epicurus

(aka. it's always easier to quote others)

Beth said...

To quote C. S. Lewis – perhaps someday we may discover, “subtle reconciliations between all our apparently contradictory notions...we shall see that there never was any problem.”