When the Unthinkable Happens
“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”
— Psalm 34:18 (NIV)
Some people admit it. Others bury it deep.
But many of us — at some point — have been mad at God.
It usually comes from pain. Tragedy. Loss.
The death of someone we love.
The illness of a child.
The kind of heartbreak that makes no sense in this life.
And we ask:
"If God loves us, how could He let this happen?"
We wrestle.
We doubt.
We rage — outwardly or in silence.
And yet... we still long for answers.
But here’s the truth I’ve come to see:
This life — this fragile, human form we occupy — is just a moment in eternity. A breath. A blink. A shadow of what is yet to come.
God sees the big picture we cannot.
Just like a child doesn’t understand the discipline or trials allowed by a parent, we can’t comprehend the purpose behind much of what we endure. But we are loved. We are held. We are being led — not forsaken.
God never promised this world would be easy.
He promised He’d be with us in it.
If everything here was perfect, there’d be no need for faith.
No need to search. No hunger for heaven.
Maybe no relationship with God at all.
But it’s in the struggle that we awaken.
It’s in the grief that we lean in.
It’s in the suffering that eternity begins to whisper to our soul.
We don’t know all the answers.
But we do know the One who holds them.
We are not abandoned.
Our suffering is not meaningless.
Our pain is not the end of the story.
We are on a journey — back to the One who made us.
Back to alignment with the Creator.
Back to our truest home.
Prayer:
God, I don’t always understand.
Sometimes I am angry, confused, even bitter.
But I don’t want to stay there.
Help me trust You beyond what I can see.
Give me the grace to hold on through the darkness,
And the courage to believe that my pain is not the end —
But a doorway to something greater, something eternal.
Amen.
