Consider my dog, Carlton. He live in the same house as me and experiences the same life I do. But he's a dog and I'm a man so even though we share the same space, we live in a different world, because of our different natures.
There are many things Carlton and I can both do. For instance we can both eat, drink, walk, run, and sleep. We do them differently, but it's clear that we're doing the same thing. For instance, Carlton eats out of a bowl with his mouth. I eat by shoveling food into my mouth with my hands. But Carlton knows that I'm eating, and he always wants what I have.
There are other things that I can do that Carlton can't really do, but in a broad sense there are similarities. For instance I can push air through my vocal cords and speak. He can also push air through his vocal cords and make noise and, if we're generous, we'd call that "speaking" but it's not really. When I speak I can express complex ideas. Carlton's communication was brilliantly summarized by Gary Larson as "Hey!"
When Carlton hears Jenny and I talk, it's unclear what he thinks of it. Does he think we're saying "Hey!" to each other over and over again? It may not make sense to him, but he knows it's normal behavior.
There are things that I do that Carlton can't do so he gets me to do them for him. For instance, I can open the back door. He's seen me open the door a thousand times, but there's no way he can open it himself and he doesn't even try. But he knows that I'll open it if he scratches or sticks his cold nose on my back when I'm sleeping in bed.
Finally, there are things that I do that Carlton is completely incapable of understanding. For instance, writing this blog post. He doesn't know what a "blog" is, he doesn't know what "writing" is. The whole thing is beyond his comprehension. Carlton doesn't even recognize that I'm doing anything. If he watches me working on my laptop, as far as he can tell I'm just starting a glowing screen (we humans do that a lot, counting TV and video games). However, to me, this is one of the most important things I do. I often do work from home and if I didn't I'd be no home to work from.
Now if there's a gulf between Carlton and I, there's an immeasurable gulf between me and God. There are some things we can both do: think, know, love, create. I can do none of them as well as God can, but they are recognizably related: perhaps like talking and barking, but still related. There are things that God can do that I can't and I rely on Him to do them: we call them "miracles". And then there are things that God does that I can't even recognize because they are so far beyond me.
To push the analogy a little further: Carlton needs me to open the door so he can chase rabbits. From Carlton's perspective, he'd be better off if I took the door off the hinges. He could then go out whenever he wants. He wouldn't get frustrated when there was a rabbit taunting him on the other side of the glass, and he could bring the rabbit back in the house with him, which to him would be a hoot. He doesn't know that the door keeps the heat out in the summer and the cold out in the winter and he doesn't know that I don't want rabbits in the house (we did have that talk, but I don't think he was paying attention). Even if I could explain that to him, he might not agree: he likes rabbits and doesn't necessarily object to the weather, either. The door seems like a nuisance to Carlton but it's for his own good. And then there's all the other stuff he has to put up with like going to the vet and getting a bath.
Similarly, God may miraculously heal someone of cancer and we greatly appreciate that, but it's hard to see why someone gets cancer in the first place. It'd save a lot of trouble if cancer didn't exist. Does cancer serve a purpose that's inscrutable to us, in the same way that the door is to Carlton? We may never know, even in Heaven.
None of this makes it easier to go through the trials in life. It's hard to find comfort in philosophical arguments when you're going through an existential crisis. But it might help to accept our limitations ahead of time so when the crisis comes we can trust that God's will for us is good, even if we don't understand how a specific crisis is "good" for us.
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