Topic : God, goodness of
Where Was God?
Izzy Nickless asked me to visit a friend of hers in St. Luke’s Hospital in August, 1987. I took Norm Evans and went to the men’s room. We chatted for a few minutes and I left him a “Steps to Peace With God” booklet and told him I’d be praying for his recovery. He had been cutting trees for firewood and one landed on top of him. He broke some ribs, punctured a lung, and crushed some vertebrae in his back. He was in a good deal of pain, but mending.
When I said I’d be praying for him, he commented, “Where was God a few days ago?” I replied that the very fact he was alive to question God’s existence and care argued that God was there protecting him! - J.U.
Faithful Missionary
One of God’s faithful missionaries, Allen Gardiner, experienced many physical difficulties and hardships throughout his service to the Savior. Despite his troubles, he said, “While God gives me strength, failure will not daunt me.”
In 1851, at the age of 57, he died of disease and starvation while serving on Picton Island at the southern tip of South America. When his body was found, his diary lay nearby. It bore the record of hunger, thirst, wounds, and loneliness. The last entry in his little book showed the struggle of his shaking hand as he tried to write legibly. It read, “I am overwhelmed with a sense of the goodness of God.”
Corrie Ten Boom
Deep in our hearts we believe in a good God. Yet how shallow is our understanding of His goodness, especially since we see many things that seem to deny it. Corrie Ten Boom clarified the issue for us. She wrote:
“Often I have heard people say, ‘How good God is! We prayed that it would not rain for our church picnic, and look at the lovely weather!’ Yes, God is good when He sends good weather. But God was also good when He allowed my sister, Betsie, to starve to death before my eyes in a German concentration camp. I remember one occasion when I was very discouraged there. Everything around us was dark, and there was darkness in my heart. I remember telling Betsie that I thought God had forgotten us. ‘No, Corrie,’ said Betsie, ‘He has not forgotten us. Remember His Word: “For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him.” ” Corrie concludes, “There is an ocean of God’s love available—there is plenty for everyone. May God grant you never to doubt that victorious love—whatever the circumstances.”
