Published 11/15/19
By Greg Johnson
What If...
For the most part, your life has gone pretty well. You’ve got a family that loves you, a home that’s comfortable, a good church, a bike, some friends, your own bed... hey, life is pretty good. But then one week everything starts to go wrong.
You walk to school and accidentally drop your backpack in a huge mud puddle. Not only is the pack soggy, but all of your books, a class project that took you three weeks to work on and the rest of your homework is wet beyond recognition. Your books are so far gone that Mom and Dad have to buy new ones.
When you get home from school, you see that your Electric Battleship game is gone. What happened? Your little sister was playing in your room and dropped it... twice. It was completely ruined so Mom threw it away.
The next day you ride your bike to school, but in your hurry to get to class you forget to lock it. When you head out the door to go home after school... you guessed it, someone stole your bike. The weather for the one-mile walk home? It’s raining buckets, of course.
That night your dog gets really sick. He’s making bad messes all over the house. About bedtime, Dad decides you and he need to take him to the vet. It’s 10 P.M. when the vet finally delivers the bad news: the dog has cancer and should be put to sleep. You’re so tired, you can’t stop crying.
Could it get any worse? Of course it could. At play practice the next day, one of your cast members accidentally trips you. Falling hard on your right wrist, you hear something crack. Not only does it hurt like crazy, but an hour later you’re riding home from the doctor with your arm in a cast. It’s broken. If you get to perform in the play, you’ll have to wear the cast.
Questions to Think On
• Pretty bad week, huh? Does all of this bad stuff happening to you mean God doesn’t care about you anymore?
• Why would God allow all of these things to occur?
• When bad things do happen to you or your family, do you sometimes think God has taken a vacation or do you just take it as it comes?
• Mom and Dad: Talk about why bad things happen to even those who call God their Father.
What Does God Have to Say?
Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you.
(c)