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We’ve all heard it numerous times, “the Lord works in mysterious ways.” We hear this In times of blessing and abundance, in times of mourning and strife, in the times when we have the least understanding. 

We don’t understand when we have been chosen to be blessed, or when we have had a tragedy or struggles, or in situations that don’t make sense.  We rationalize the situations as either good or bad by saying, “God works in mysterious ways.” In those moments our God truly is mysterious to us. 

I propose that the more you know Christ the better you understand God‘s ways because his word, the Bible, has given us a record of how God operates. Performing miracles in the least expected situations, he uses the least likely persons to carry out his will. He also rewards the faithful, like Job.

In Isaiah 55:8-9, God tells us his thoughts are not our thoughts, nor are our ways his way, for as the heavens are higher than the Earth so are God’s ways higher than our ways, and God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts. 

He has more information than we do. Therefore, his ways are not the same as ours. It may not seem so to us, but God’s ways are better than ours. 

This week, I read the story of a young 21-year-old man with a mental disability who took his own life but chose to be an organ donor. So, at the time of the article, the young man’s organs had already saved four others lives. 

I can’t imagine the sorrow of the parents who lost a son, but I also can’t imagine the joy of the four families whose loved ones received his gift of life. Is it a mystery to us why God chooses to let some live and others die? It’s absolutely mysterious to us, but the mystery fades when we know God through his son Jesus, because we know in our sanctification, we grow in wisdom that God, the father, can be glorified in any circumstance, good or bad, and as the apostle Paul teaches, we should love God so much that we glorify him even in our lowest valleys. 

God bless. Please send questions and comments to eastsidebaptistchurch@yahoo.com.