but “ The Lord gave , and the Lord has taken away .” And with that certainty he blessed the name of that Lord .
But while God ’ s sovereignty offers comfort , it offers comfort only if I know something more , something of his character . After all , God might be sovereign and capricious . He might be sovereign and selfish . He might be sovereign and arbitrary . He might be sovereign and evil . So for this reason I ask , “ What else is true of God ?”
If there was no moment in which God stopped being sovereign , there is no moment in which he stopped being good .
If I am laying my head on any pillow in these days , it is the pillow of God ’ s goodness . I keep saying it : “ God is good all the time .” I may be saying it with sorrow and bewilderment and something less than full faith . I may be saying it as a question : “ God is good all the time , right ?” But I am saying it . I don ’ t necessarily understand how God is good in this , or why taking my son is consistent with his goodness , but I know it must be . If Nick ’ s death was not a lapse in God ’ s sovereignty , it was also not a lapse in his goodness . If there was no moment in which God stopped being sovereign , there is no moment in which he stopped being good — good toward me , good toward my family , good toward Nick , good according to his perfect wisdom . God can ’ t not be good !
God ’ s goodness means that everything God is and everything God does is worthy of approval , for he himself is the very standard of goodness . Those things that are good are those things that God deems good , that God deems fitting , that God deems appropriate . For something to be good is for it to meet the approval of God , and for something to meet the approval of God is for it to be good . If that ’ s the case , then who am I to declare evil what God has declared good ? Who am I to condemn what God has approved ? It falls to me to align my own understanding of goodness with God ’ s , to rely on God ’ s understanding of good to inform my own . Ultimately it ’ s to agree that if God did it , it must be good , and if it is good , it must be worthy of approval . To say , “ Thy will be done ,” is to say , “ Thy goodness be shown .” It ’ s to seek out evidence of God ’ s goodness even in the hardest of his providences . It ’ s to worship him , even with a broken heart .
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