There really was a reason

The other day I was just pulling out of the gas station when suddenly my driver's side door window shattered and I was covered with glass and I was dumbfounded. I thought I had been shot at first. I pulled over and began to assess the situation. Then it occurred to me that I was rolling up my window at the time of the explosion.

No I hadn't been shot. Somehow the mechanism malfunctioned and the tension on the window must have caused it to explode. I was sure there was a reasonable explanation for what had happened.

It made me think about the number of crazy things that happen in life. So often we want to blame someone or something. In the heat of the moment we think up some pretty wild explanations for what took place (I had been shot!) The truth is that usually we can find a reason for whatever happened.

The man at Payless Glass explained that the bolts on the window just came free, probably over time, and when it slipped into the tension wires it snapped and caused it to shatter. It was nice to know why it happened.

But there are those moments when we cannot explain why something happens. A few weeks ago I had a funeral for a young man who just died one day when an undiagnosed aneurysm let go in his brain. When I went to visit his fiance, all I could say was how sorry I was. Then I reminded her that it was at these moments that God called us to simply put our trust in him.

That is faith. It is believing that God is good and that He is still in charge and His will shall be done, even in those horrible inexplicable events. It was true on a day like September 11, 2001 and it was true for that young fiance.

This made even more sense to me as I stood at the counter of the repair shop. As the technician explained what happened, he helped make sense out of my mishap. I think the same thing will happen when we all get to heaven. God will explain what happened and we will suddenly understand in a way we never could before. But for now, he calls us to trust Him.

Cal