n e w c h u r c h l i f e : j u ly / au g u s t 2 0 1 4
1757, and that the world still is dealing with the fallout of the Last Judgment,
with wars and terrorism and inhumanity, and a culture largely turning its back
on God and religion: “mere anarchy loosed upon the world.”
The Word, of course, also is filled with violence, cruelty and despair, but
ends with the Holy City New Jerusalem descending from God out of heaven.
It always offers hope, and counsels trust and patience in following the Lord.
All of the Word, of course, is rooted in ancient peoples and symbols but
speaks to our own lives today. That includes Abraham, Moses, the prophets
and the disciples, but also their opposites. With the revelation given to us in
the Writings we are assured that even when we let a bit of Herod or Judas or
Jezebel into our lives – and let the Lord down – He never stops loving us or
trying to raise us up into heaven.
How could we not be trusting and optimistic – especially when we
understand the workings of Divine providence and the reality of the Lord’s
unconditional love for us?
Peace holds within itself trust in the Lord, that He governs all things and provides
all things, that He leads to an end that is good. (Arcana Coelestia 8455)
We are told in the Writings that if we could see the workings of Divine
providence in our lives – and in the course of the world – it would look like
scattered heaps of materials for building a house. Some things connected,
some not. Bits of pattern here, chaos there. But the Lord looks at any stage of
our lives and sees how the pieces fit together, like a beautiful home, constantly
changing and improving.
In his 1927 Pulitzer Prize-winning classic, The Bridge of San Luis Rey,
Thornton Wilder tried to make sense of the random victims of a rope bridge
collapse in 18th century Peru. It’s the kind of why-does-God-let-it-happen
question that haunts anyone – from the untimely death of a friend to hundreds
of victims of a plane crash or a hurricane.
Wilder was puzzling over whether God really does have a plan for all of us,
but without sure knowledge of providence his speculation fell short. However,
he came up with a better explanation in a book 40 years later, The Eighth Day,
and we all can relate to its image. It is the story of a good and decent man
whose life is ruined by bad luck. Wilder offers the hopeful image of a tapestry,
showing an inspiring work of art on one side, but a tangle of threads and knots
on the other.
In his own 1980 best-seller, When Bad Things Happen to Good People,
Rabbi Harold Kushner concludes: “Wilder offers this as an explanation of why
good people have to suffer in this life. God has a pattern into which all of our
lives fit. His pattern requires that some lives be twisted, knotted, or cut short,
while others extend to impressive lengths, not because one thread is more
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