Everything happens……

So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When he made love to her, the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son.

The women said to Naomi: “Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a guardian-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.”

Then Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him.

The women living there said, “Naomi has a son!” And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

This, then, is the family line of Perez: Perez was the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, Salmon the father of Boaz, Boaz the father of Obed, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David.  Ruth 4:13-22

Boaz has done good. Ruth has been blessed with a son. Naomi is now going to be protected into her old age. And this baby Obed is the grandfather of the mighty King David! It’s a real ‘and they all lived happily ever after’ ending.

All’s well that ends well.

Some would say that all of the events in this story were God’s will. God was intervening every step of the way to guide events to this outcome. God sent the famine that forced Elimelek and his family to travel to Moab. God took Elimelek and his sons from Naomi. God influenced Orpah to leave and Ruth to stay with Naomi. God made Boaz be honourable and do the right thing for Ruth.

All so that they would end up having a son who would end up being David’s grandfather.

Everything happens for a reason, doesn’t it? And in this case, the reason turns out to be pretty clear. Well, within a couple of generations, that is. It’s unlikely that Naomi, and even Ruth or Boaz, lived to see the great outworking of the terrible tragedy in their lives.

I have a bit of an issue with the ‘everything happens for a reason’ mentality, you see. I’ve been wrestling with how to write this for the last few days and hope that I manage to convey something helpful.

At work the other day, we were talking about the truly heartbreaking issue of miscarriage and stillbirth. My colleague repeated several times ‘Well, everything happens for a reason, doesn’t it? If this hadn’t happened, then that wouldn’t have happened…..’ I can see her point. Everything that happens then has an influence on what happens next. But does everything happen for a reason? Does God send a tragedy like this upon a family – is that the logical conclusion? What good reason could there be?

And when someone is diagnosed with a terminal illness, has this happened for a reason? People I know in this situation have heard all the trite explanations……God has sent this illness to teach you a lesson; maybe this is a punishment for some unconfessed sin in your life……you’ve probably heard it all before too.

It’s not just the bad things either. People say ‘God gave me this job’; ‘The Lord sent an angel to protect me in this car crash’; ‘I prayed for a parking space and God provided one’……so what if you can’t get a job, or are badly injured in a car crash or are twenty minutes late for a meeting because you can’t find anywhere to park? What then? Where is God in that?

When things work out how we want them to, we are quick to say ‘God is good’. Let;s be clear – God is good anyway. God is good, however things work out in our lives. We don’t need our perfectly ordered lives to prove that God is good.

God is good. Full stop.

We don’t need good things to happen to us to prove that God is love and that He loves us.

God is love. Full stop.

God loves us. Full stop.

God is faithful and constant, ‘an ever present help in times of trouble’ (Psalm 46)

This is good news, right? We have so much to be thankful for. We have life and love and laughter. We can count our blessings everyday. We have family and friends and health and homes. We should never take any of it for granted but be grateful for the simple pleasures, appreciate the good things in life and remember that everything we have comes from the one who made us and sustains life (‘everything we have is yours and of your own do we give you’).

Back to the bad stuff. Maybe some people find it reassuring that there is a reason behind the suffering they are currently enduring. I do not. If I thought there was a reason, I would be agonising over trying to work it out. I would be wanting to make sense of all my pain. I would be trying to understand why God would allow it to happen or worse, have actually engineered it to happen.

I know in the Old Testament, we have been reading that ‘The Lord sent this…’ or ‘The Lord did this to……’ Even in this passage it says ‘the Lord enabled her to conceive’. This is the language they used at the time to explain the inexplicable. They needed a reason.

But I don’t see God as a figure who sits up in the sky sending down blessings and punishments to teach us a lesson or reward us. Blessings and punishments seem a lot more random than that to me, as I look around the world. Good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people. All the time. A God figure like that seems too much like the Greek gods pulling all the strings for their amusement as humans get hurt and suffer………

The gods may throw the dice
Their minds as cold as ice
And someone way down here
Loses someone dear   (The Winner Takes It All, Abba)

In Greek tragedies, there was a convention called ‘Deus ex machina’, where a machine was used to bring actors playing gods onto the stage (either lowered by a crane or raised up through a trap door). These gods intervened in the action, changed the course of the action, often to resolve the conflict and conclude the drama. Is that what God is like? Pulling the strings, manipulating, intervening…….?

There has been a verse that has been a great source of comfort and reassurance to me over the years –

 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Jeremiah 29:11

I wanted to know God has his hand on my life, that He was guiding me and that everything that happened was part of His plan. But I’d taken this verse out of its context. These words were spoken to a whole nation. These words were for the people of God as a whole. These plans were for the redemption and salvation of all the people of God. In this context, they were not about illness or jobs or car parking spaces. They were about releasing the people from exile, restoring them to right relationship with God. You see, this is what comes next –

Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord….     Jeremiah 29:12-14

And this is what is really exciting. Maybe everything does not happen for a reason. Maybe everything just happens. Maybe there is not a good reason to be found. Maybe we will never ever begin to understand. Maybe we will never ever be able to come up with an explanation.

I find that quite freeing in its own way. I am not called upon to make sense of suffering or blessing or pain or happiness. I am called upon to respond however.

I am called upon to cry out to God in anguish or in joy……in praise or in confusion…..in thankfulness or in bitter injustice…….because when I call on God, when I come to Him, when I pray to Him, He will be there. He will be listening. When I look for Him in my suffering or in my happiness, He will be there to be found.

Whatever happens, He is always there. He comforts and strengthens. He prompts others to be there for us and provide for us. He brings inexplicable peace.

He brings the greatest miracle of all into every situation. Only He can do this. He has promised this –

 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.  Romans 8:28

And let’s not forget the context – the whole of Romans 8 is a fantastic read and a great encouragement, whatever you may be going through.

I’m not saying this lightly. These words are often not what you want to hear when you’re going through an awful time. But this is not a platitude to make you feel better. It is actually true.

Everything happens. And where is God? Right at work in the midst of everything, there for us and with us and in us.

And what can God do? God can help us make the best of everyday, whatever that everyday holds. He can bring good out of everyday. He can bring love and peace and redemption and salvation – even in the tiniest of measures – out of everyday.

He can bring hope – even the tiniest glimmer – out of everyday.

There is a bigger picture – the whole of human history spanning forward into eternity – and we are each a part of that. Like Ruth and Boaz, we don’t know what will happen next, what the next chapter holds, what significance the events of today will have in the future.

We can only work through our grief and bitterness like Naomi.

We can only be faithful and loyal like Ruth.

We can only be honourable and do the right thing like Boaz.

We can only be the best we can be with who we are and what we have today and trust God for the rest.

PS: I hope this has made some sense. You may not agree. You probably will not agree. This is a work in progress. I am a work in progress. I would be delighted to hear what any of you have to say on this matter. I’m simply opening up the discussion.