PODCAST
Wisdom Beyond “Under the Sun”
May 16th, 2014
Ecclesiastes 7:11-25
It is an amazing time to be a biologist, to understand the nature of inheritance, the processes of gene expression, to comprehend, as Francis Collins titled his recent book The Language of God. It is one of the reasons Donna loves teaching biology. She has learned so much about creation.
Nevertheless, when Donna’s grieving neighbor stopped in for tea one morning, she stumbled in her attempts to answer her neighbor’s “providence” question, “Why did my sister die of liver cancer? She was a good person. She left three small children who will forever remember and be scarred by this pain.”
Donna tried a few lines like “We live in a broken world” or “Our freedom of choice sometimes brings us great pain” but neither of these was satisfying.
Truth be told, we may never know why righteous people get what the wicked deserve (vs. 14), or grasp fully the meaning of life and death (v. 17b). After decades of reflection, I have discovered one thought that brings comfort in such times: I do not know why this has happened, but I am convinced that the righteous are in the hands of a God who loves us beyond comprehension.
Author: Donna Bordelon Alder
