Hard questions and good answers

"I used to think that God was gentle. But now I think He's hard and strict. I've heard that God tests us, but that we shouldn't test God..."

Tired eyes, a slightly-trembling lip, and a barely-checked depth of emotion enveloped the comment the young mother made before leaving the church this afternoon. We were all sitting on the floor, chatting about the Bible story for the week, while the children were in class.

Her comments led me to think of a few other things as well: a fleece on the ground, waiting to catch God's dew or His dryness...times of pleading prayers, given unheard, unseen answers. I waited in silence, wrestling with my own questions.

Then a beautiful thing happened. Another young mother, one who had only attended two Bible studies, spoke up saying, "That's interesting. I had thought that the God of the Bible was strict and frightening. But when I heard last week that God loved Abraham, I came to recognize and be amazed at God's love."

"God has love, yes. But what He's strict about, He's strict about."

"But remember how God made the world perfect, and then the humans decided to separate from God?" another mother broke in. "God's strictness doesn't negate the love. God didn't want it to be this way."

"It is like a parent," continued the other, "who comes after her child, who has run away. Of course she might appear angry. But it is because she loves the child that she'll be strict."

The first mother, who raised the first concern, nodded in acknowledgement of the ladies' comments. I sat with a small smile and an ache, praising God for the words He'd given to mothers who have yet to officially acknowledge Him as Lord, and recognizing that the first mother's eyes held a question and pain that would not be swept away by logic or examples. Maybe love, in some respect, has to be claimed as well as reasoned and believed in order to be known. I pray that each of those mothers would believe and claim the Source of unfailing love as Jesus.

I am continually delighted by God's guidance of these ladies and their discussions. I'm continually amazed, as we seek together to cling to the hand of our Father, to be reminded again and again that we are being held most tenderly even as we seek.