I Have No Idea How God Did That
I was just realizing that, even though I had intended the title of this article for a specific thought, it would be possible for the sentiment in the title to be true on numerous occasions. As Paul wrote to the Roman church, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!” (Rom. 11:33). But for this moment I am thinking of one thing in particular – one thing that God did that I still can’t comprehend.
This article will post in our bulletin this week. Sunday when our members read it will be both Mother’s Day and the night we will celebrate the graduates. Our first son, Luke, is graduating this year and will move away from us to attend college in August. And I will just be bluntly honest and tell you that I am having a really hard time with it.
I was the father who walked around the Walmart supercenter in Murray, Kentucky the same night he was born just so I could wander up to strangers and tell them I had just become a father. I read to him from the Bible almost every night for the first several years of his life and I gave him evening baths and changed his diapers. He was the first child, the heir, the namesake, and the one we had been waiting for. Eventually we had two more children who are just as special, just as loved, and just as wonderful to us. Isn’t it amazing how God gives us parts of our heart for every child and just for them each specifically?!
Quickly it seems now, that the crib was removed from the house and the kids all went to school. The early years of ball games and play days gave way to youth group devotionals and summer camps. What happened? I turned around and that little boy is a man. And as much as his parents want to see him fly we are both heartbroken by the hole he is leaving when takes wing.
I have been gathering myself together as much as possible in attempts not to cry at every “last” something he is doing. Like the last year in Bible Bowl, the last Lads to Leaders, the last band concert or academic bowl competition. I know I need to remember that there will also be many firsts that will come for him and us in the future. What I realize is that I am letting my son leave (as if I had a choice) and I am doing it so he will be blessed. His leaving is a good thing. He is leaving for personal growth, opportunity, and for his future destiny in the world and more importantly in the kingdom of God. And yet, I am still having such a difficult time accepting it!
And in the middle of all of this I thought of another Father…
And I want to know how did God let His son leave home? How did he let Jesus leave when nothing good was about to happen for him?
Wait. He didn’t let him. He appointed him for leaving. He sent his son Jesus to a world that was only going to hate him and reject him. He emptied heaven and let the co-Creator of the universe become the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world. He saw him cry out for deliverance on the cross of Calvary and rather than bear him up he turned his face away. I have no idea how God did that. I will never understand it. Not ever!
I think I need to get over my pity party. I have a Father who loves me very much. He gave up His Son so that people like me might live with him forever. Maybe it is my turn to do the same.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” – John 3:16.
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AUTHOR: Jeremiah Tatum
