“We know that in all things God works for good…” (Romans 8:28)
We all know that there are more than enough Bible translations out there, many good, some not so good. And if you’ve ever thought that the little differences among those translations don’t matter much, hear what Oliver Thomas had to say in his column “America’s Tough Week,” written in the wake of the bombing in Boston:
Tell that to the Richard family who lost their 8-year-old son in the new Boston Massacre, or to the families of the half-dozen volunteer firefighters who, it increasingly appears, gave their lives trying to save the town of West.
Fortunately, the King James translators got it wrong. No surprise. They had only a dozen or so ancient manuscripts to work from. Today’s translators have more than 5,000. Examine St. Paul’s letter to the Romans in its original Greek, and you’ll discover something different. “God works in all things for good,” said St. Paul, even in the midst of tragedy. Especially in the midst of tragedy.
I saw it this week. Marathon runners crossing the finish line exhausted yet continuing to run miles to the nearest hospital to donate blood. Neighbors in West, Texas, taking in neighbors, sharing food, clothing, whatever. Just ordinary citizens acting like the heroes we all aspire to be.
America has had a jarring week. But the small acts of her people should give us hope. And the quiet assurance that better days lie ahead.
That little difference between “all things work together for good” and “in all things God works for good” actually makes all the difference. It makes the difference between a God who orchestrates every last action–a God who is somehow behind monstrous acts like what happened in Boston and West–and a God who remains beside people and works for good, even in the midst of tragedy that God would never create.
Our faith is in that second kind of God: not a God who acts like a divine puppeteer controlling the ropes that cause pain and sorrow and tragedy (and then demanding that we call those things good!), but a God who promises to be present, determines to be present, even in places that seem God-forsaken. That’s the kind of God we know in Jesus, crucified and risen, and that’s the kind of God we put our faith in still.
We pray together for the healing of the nations and for the courage to follow that one who promises to work in all things for good.
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