Thursday, June 18, 2009

Mrs. Job


Job's wife is one of the more misunderstood and, I think, sympathetic characters in the Bible. People berate her as an unsupportive wife, while failing to realize that in this tug-of-war on her husband's life, she was collateral damage. It wasn't just Job, but she also lost all of her children in one fell swoop. She, as well as Job, went from being a person of wealth and stature in the community, to having lost everything. And none of this was any more her fault than it was Job's. Plus, you think Job's friends were bad, men can't hold a candle to women in the "catty" department. You know she had the village women tearing her apart, both to her face and at the well behind her back. On top of all this, her husband, a good and upright man, the one she loved more than anything, was suffering horribly. He was aching physically, emotionally, and spiritually. He was wholly and thoroughly miserable, and there wasn't a thing she could do about it.
She asked her husband, "Dost thou still retain thine integrity?" In asking this she was verifying that his faith, in death, would send him to Abraham's Bosom, where all this suffering would cease to exist. A sure and quick way for this to happen would be for him to curse God. Not a brilliant idea, perhaps, but to her strained heart and mind, it made sense at the time. She could not do anything to end Job's suffering, so she begged of him to end his turmoil in the quickest way she could think. It was not her hatred of God, but her love for her husband that drove her to suggest such drastic mesasures. So please, go a little easy on poor Mrs. Job, a good woman who loved God, her husband, and her family.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Why?

Occasionally we find an injured or baby bird in the back yard. I give it food and water and try to make it as comfortable as possible until I can take it to a vet clinic that accepts wild animals. Once I've dropped the little guy off, I decide to believe that he will get better. Broken bones will be healed, and babies will grow to a full healthy adulthood, with the ultimate release into the wild. A little unrealistic, maybe but a healthy denial for me. A couple of weeks after one such incident, while driving through my neighborhood on my way to the store, I noticed a bird hopping around on the street and sidewalk. It was conspicuous by its not flying. This bothered me, but I made myself not stop to chase it around, catch and "fix" this apparently wounded bird; knowing full well that its life was in danger, if not imminently, at least eventually. I know that this is the normal and natural way of things, the circle of life, and all that, but still the awareness of this little creature's situation brought tears to my eyes. "God, why did you make me this way? Why did you make me to care about these little creatures so much?" It seemed to me that I would be better off if I wouldn't notice, much less care about the life and times of a robin.
"Well," I heard Him reply, "I made you like me."