The Epistles

Writer

Grace Asante

A few days ago, I was having a conversation with my colleagues about God and how He likes to show off. Then the passage in John 9:1-7 came to mind, then I blurted, “God can be mean.”

The passage in John is a story about Jesus, his disciples and a man who was born blind. The disciples after they met the blind man asked Jesus an interesting question about the origin of his impairment and Jesus gave an equally fascinating answer. In short, Jesus said the man was born blind so that God could show off His power. For a long time, that’s how I understood that portion of scripture and that somewhat flawed understanding also led me to the wrong belief that God can be very mean. And here’s why.

A man who was blind from birth must have lived a tough life. Imagine the number of times he bumped into a stump or wall or the number of times he fell into a gutter or down a flight of stairs. Just imagine the difficulty of the life he had to live. And all for what? 

Somewhere later in the day the Holy Spirit brought that conversation back to mind and asked me if I really believed that God was a mean God? No, I know God is not mean. But at the same time why would You say something like he was born blind so that the glory of the Lord will be revealed? How? Then the Holy Spirit asked me, “How is a person born blind?” The answer would be somewhere along the lines of genetic predisposition of the child, or complications during childbirth.

Then the Holy Spirit put in my heart to think of the whole situation like this instead: God knew that child was going to suffer the fate of blindness anyway, but instead of allowing him to be born at any other time period in life, he let that child be born in the dispensation of Jesus walking the earth. He allowed the child to be born in a place where Jesus would eventually go to. That sounds like grace to me.

The truth we know is that God is good. He is always good. So, when we think about life’s troubles, challenges and our struggles, the truth that God is good should always remain. When we think from the standpoint of God’s goodness, that’s when we truly begin to see the goodness and grace and how it applies in our lives. When you focus on His goodness, you will see how good He is to you.

Sometimes it will not make sense no matter how you think about it. But it still doesn’t change the truth of God’s goodness. He is good, to you, even when it doesn’t feel like it. I don’t have all the answers, but I know one thing; God is intentional, and He is intentionally good.