In my last post, I asked, “If Jesus promised that our heavenly Father knows our needs and will supply them, why are so many people poor and starving?” Any honest, thinking person has wrestled with the question of why a loving God allows suffering and injustice.

Let’s go back to where the Lord’s prayer states, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  Remember that God’s will obviously is NOT always being done on earth or Jesus would not have directed to pray that it be done.

When God created the first man and woman, he gave them the job of lovingly stewarding the environment, its plant life and living creatures under his benevolent, wise guidance. All was to be a blissful paradise.

But man was also created with a free will. They could choose uncoerced obedience or rebellion. Even the possibility of the most extreme consequences from the latter choice did not stop God from granting that freedom. He knew love is only real love when freely chosen with no manipulation involved.

Sadly, man chose to rebel and what was meant to be an orderly, kind, peaceful oversight of the earth by man led to darkness, decay, death, and the brutality and crass selfishness of sin.

In my next blog post, I will discuss further how the results of that rebellion have led to the problems we see in the world today.