1 John 4:8 – He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
In my virtual travels around the web I often encounter atheists who have made it their mission in life to try to make our wonderful God appear as unattractive as possible in their attempts to cause believers to lose their faith and non-believers to avoid finding it. One of their favorite tactics is explaining the “unfairness” of God’s many judgments as depicted in the Bible.
These severely misguided individuals typically point to events like the great flood and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and insist that “innocent” people must surely have suffered and died along with the “guilty”, and that any God who would allow that to happen wouldn’t be a God they would be interested in serving even if He existed. Well, like I said, they are severely misguided…
The mistake they are making is that except for the Lord Jesus Christ Himself (when He was living on earth in human form) there are no “innocent” human beings. Romans 3:23 says “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”… And that does means everyone. But you’re probably asking “What about small children and babies?”
While it’s true that infants and small children do not consciously commit sins, the corrupted blood of Adam still courses through their veins, making them sinners. This state of sin is inherited, not a result of any decision(s) they made on their own. And since the wages of sin is death, babies and small children are subject to dying a human death just like adults are. Thankfully, most of them end up growing up and living into adulthood, but many don’t for one reason or another.
But that sad fact is not the fault of God. When a person of any age feels the sting of human death, he/she is simply receiving the punishment that was levied on all of mankind after the fall of Adam. It’s a fate we all must eventually endure.
Like most people, I am deeply saddened when I hear of a young child dying from a terrible disease or due to some other type of misfortune because they will never have the opportunity to experience many of the wonderful things that God blesses us with during a long earthly life. And of course I’m always heartbroken for the child’s family.
But we also have to remember that God is love, and He ALWAYS takes care of His children. Even though a young child is a sinner from birth, because of His endless mercy God forgives his/her sins in the event that he/she dies before reaching the age of accountability. Countless babies and children who “died” at a very young age are already enjoying magnificent lives up in heaven, and many more will follow after them. And the good thing is they were spared most of the hardships and troubles that go along with living a long human life.
You see, we humans simply cannot comprehend the greatness of our amazing, supremely loving, and all-powerful God. His plans are not our own, and His reasons for doing the things He does are not for us to question. To us, it seems that taking an “innocent” to heaven prematurely is a bad thing, and it’s absolutely right for us to feel that way out of our own love, compassion and limited human understanding.
But from God’s point of view, calling one of His children home early is actually a blessing, affording him or her the rare privilege of getting to “skip” most of the bad things about life down here while getting a “head start” on enjoying the magnificence of life in His holy presence up in heaven.
Of course it still breaks our hearts whenever we hear that a child has passed away at an early age, and so it should. But we also need to understand that God knows what’s best for His children, and we humans are simply incapable of comprehending His tremendous love and endless fountain of mercy and wisdom.
God is love. He always has been, and He always will be, and we should never question His reasons for allowing things to happen that we don’t understand.