Friday we attended a wedding about 2 ¼ hours away. The reception was in the top floor of the highest building in the largest town in our state. The walls were glass. The sunset over the city with the rock cliffs glowing in red tinted light was a spectacular sight. Likewise were the bride and groom radiating with joy. The bride would baby-sit my sister and I back in the days before my memory was functioning.

Saturday my mom drove my sister to the airport for a two-week trip to Texas. We drove to the ranch a little later. There we demolished a fence, found the stray goat and brought it home, marked the location of a shop building, did some dirt work with the tractor, cleaned the house, and generally made slower progress than expected. We slowly drove home at dusk pulling 3 tons of steel behind us. This mass was the tractor on a flatbed, which takes a lot of $2.74 diesel to convince it to go down the road.

Currently listening to: John Piper on the providence of God

Why does God do anything that he does? For his glory. Why does he make us suffer? For his glory. Does God or Satan make calamities happen? According to Job and Naomi, it is God who directly gives us suffering. It is God and God alone. Is there unrighteousness with God? Nay, but o man, who art thou that repliest against God? Does this make God unloving? No, he loves us so much that he uses suffering to sanctify and purify us for the marriage supper of the Lamb.

If you have not experienced grief in your life, you will, so get ready for it. Get ready to praise God and echo Job in saying, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord. I have a long ways to go in being able to say that. But, it is much easier if we realize that God is working ALL things together for our good. What a restful place to be, in the hand of God. Fatalists who believe in luck and chance must be miserable people!