On my way to rehearsal this evening, someone drove into the back of me. Coming up to a roundabout, the car in front of me stopped to let a pedestrian cross, I had time to stop but the car behind me didn’t. The noise was the worst bit, but no one was hurt, the car in front drove off as they weren’t affected, and there was minimal damage to the cars.
When we got out and exchanged details, and the driver said that really it was the driver in front of me’s fault, the one who had stopped for the pedestrian, shame we didn’t catch their details.
What does this have to do with God? This seems to me to be a good allegory for how life can go. In this situation, I had done everything right – I was paying attention, I had left a good stopping distance, my lights were on – in fact, there was nothing more I could have done to prevent this.
In life, we can do everything right. We can be kind and respectful, we can be generous and charitable, we can be good citizens and human beings and still find ourselves in trouble. It’s not all to do with us. Other human beings can make a mistake or choose to act in a way that is not as generous or kind. In this situation, for whatever reason, the driver behind me didn’t stop in time. But what was worse for me was the way they didn’t take responsibility, but instead tried to pass that onto a third party. Again, a parallel with life maybe? The one in the wrong trying to pass the blame?
God gave humans the freedom to choose. Sometimes we choose to do the right thing, sometimes with the best of intentions we get it wrong, and sometimes we just make bad decisions. And so often, innocent people get hurt, either physically or through wrongful persecution.
God never promises this won’t happen. In fact, the psalms are full of the psalmist lamenting the fact that those doing evil seem to be rewarded while those who are good suffer. But what God promises is that he will be there with us, and that what is to come is better. He promises his own justice in eternity, and that is a merciful justice that we can trust – God sees more than us and loves harder than us and there is no one else I would want to judge me.
So when those metaphorical car crashes come your way that you couldn’t prevent, it’s not a punishment for something you have done ordained by God, but God is there with you, telling you to breath, making a strong cuppa, giving you a hug, and God will see justice done, his justice. You can trust him, he’s got your back.
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