Cold, so cold

Why is it so cold? Why? I know that there is a high pressure system sitting over us, with the jet stream pressing in from the north bringing in even more cold. The winds will blow because of the high pressure. The Alberta Clipper due in on Wednesday evening is coming straight down from Alberta, Canada. Yeah, yeah. Meteorology tell us all that stuff.

But why does it have to be so cold? Why can't it be warm? At least in the 30's maybe even the 40's? Why does it have to be single digit temps with the wind taking it to below zero? I want it to be warmer when I walk the dogs.

And it is too cold in the kids rooms upstairs. Why does it have to be so cold up there? Why can't they have more heat? It shouldn't be so cold outside so that it is cold inside. It just isn't right. I don't like it.

I just don't like it! God why are You allowing this to happen! Can't You make it stop? Are you punishing me for something? Have I done something wrong to cause it? Or are You just a mean God who doesn't really care about how we are here on earth? What kind of a God are You anyway? Why would You allow people to live on the streets while it is so cold? You really must not be very nice? God is love? Are you nuts? How can He be love when it is bitter cold, people are freezing, and then, when it is all said and done, we will have to pay higher power bills to a company that is getting rich because we are cold.

IT JUST ISN'T FAIR!

Sound familiar? That is how we think about God. We want God to do what we want, when we want, how we want - and when He doesn't, we get angry with Him. We turn our back upon Him. We quit worshiping because we don't like what He has done (even though it is our fault we allow people to suffer in the cold instead of helping them, and it is the greed of the power company that causes them to raise prices when they know people are going to need the power to stay warm and it is the fault of a fallen world that causes these temperatures extremes to happen, which actually is trace back to Adam and Eve in the Garden, not God refusing to love or care for us). We get upset, like spoiled children. We kick and scream because our heavenly Father doesn't do what we want.

But who is God and who is the creation? Did we make God? If so, we really made a weak God. Or did God make us? If so, then He is an amazing, strong, powerful God. He does love us. He does care. That is why He was born in Bethlehem, why He became a man - all for us, because we have these problems in life, these pains, these obnoxious ways of acting, these sins that lead us by the nose through our days. He loved us so much that He was willing to become one of us, to take our place, to suffer, to die, to be placed in a stone-cold tomb. He rose on the 3rd day for us because we would be sealed in the tomb forever if He didn't. He did it for you and for me. He loved us. He loves us!

OK, I am still going to be cold, but now I know, it isn't God's fault. It is the fault of a fallen, sinful world. I am still going to have to put up with cold rooms and cold toes. But I also am going to know that God loves me and forgives me for that terrible thing I said to that person today (or just thought about saying to them). He loves me so much that I can go to bed and pray, "Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep." And He will. Thank You dear Father. Thank You!