things too wonderful...

Job speaks to God… "I’m convinced: You can do anything and everything. Nothing and no one can upset your plans.
" You asked, "Who is this muddying the water, ignorantly confusing the issue, second-guessing my purposes?"
"I admit it. I was the one. I babbled on about things far beyond me, made small talk about wonders way over my head."
I was reading through the last bit of Job this week. Job had gone through a series of devastating events in his life, things that would understandably undo just about everyone on the planet. Life’s tripping along pretty splendidly for Job when suddenly, in the span of a few weeks (?) he loses everyone in his family; murdered by marauding enemies, loses everything financially, and loses his own health, through no fault of his own. He is suddenly alone and destitute and sick. He has been faithful to God, generous, good to his neighbors, good to his family and now this….
The natural question, the one we would all ask, is why? He asks the question of God, but God remains silent. His friends however, do not. They say that things like this don’t ‘just happen’, there has to be a reason. God is just. You must have sinned. Job said he hadn’t sinned. The friends said that now he was just being arrogant, he had to have sinned or this wouldn’t be happening. They go on long explanations of who they perceive God to be. Job doesn’t budge. He gets quite personal with God, demanding an explanation. I respect that. He asks the hard questions and demands an answer. This offends the friends of Job. How dare you speak to God this way, don’t you know who he is?? You don’t demand answers from God!!! More long speeches about the sovereignty of God, the righteousness of God. Job is not swayed from his pursuit. What Job believes to be true about God, and what Job is experiencing, are not lining up and he wants to know why. Again he demands an answer from God.
Well, God does not disappoint. He answers! Boy, does he answer! He does not explain the ‘why’ of it, but he certainly explains the ‘who’ of it. If Job didn’t get how big God is before, he certainly did now! And the above is his response. "OK God, I get it. I get it that I didn’t get it before. I get it that I’ve been talking about things I can’t possibly understand, that are miles to big for me, that are too wonderful, too complex, too simple, too infinite for my tiny mind."
The thing that struck me this time through is right at the very end. God made it very clear that Jobs three friends had not spoken the truth about him (God), that they had misrepresented him (God), that they needed to repent of their wrong thinking. God did not say this about Job. Job had it right. But, even in having it right, he did not have it complete. God did not punish Job for asking the questions, or for demanding an answer. He didn’t strike him dead with a lightning bolt. In fact, he blessed him. The God of the universe, the one who is bigger than big, greater than great, stepped into Jobs world and answered him. How cool is that??!! Then he blessed him with more than he had before. Incredible!
I will continue to ask questions. I have been humbled again of late by how few answers I have. I feel I have stumbled on to a tiny glimpse of truth in regard to the God Who Heals. At the same time, I have seen where what I believe to be true, and what I experience, do not line up, and I want to know why. What I experience does not equal the Truth. This does not make the Truth not True. What it does tell me is that there is so much more that I don’t know and understand. I feel like I have my hands on a corner of a huge silk cloth that covers the universe. I have my hands on it. I can touch it, feel it, smell it, experience it, but I’ll never know the whole of it. I could fill my arms full of it, wrap myself round and round with it, but still only ever have just the tiniest part of it. The fact that I’ll never grasp the whole of it is OK with me, but I do still find myself wanting (and needing) more than I have.
I have lived at least part of my life with Jobs friends, telling me not to dare to ask questions, not to ask for more, not to demand an answer. I am learning again and again, that God is not afraid of my questions, He is not offended by them, and He is a rewarder of those who seek Him, who seek Him with all their hearts.