Nightly Gathering

Open Thread Post 129 - Questioning

Today I came across a story that was posted on the Coffee & Covid substack I enjoy reading. It is the miraculous story of a 40-year old snowboarder who fell into a tree-well of soft powdery snow on Mt. Baker a couple months ago. Experienced on the mountain, he and his friends went off trail with all of the correct equipment, yet he found himself head down under six feet of snow with, in all likelihood, only fifteen minutes left in his earthly life.

That’s when another skier, also prepared with the right equipment off-trail, just happened to notice out of the corner of his eye, the snowboard itself wiggling up through the snow off to his left. This young man dug the other man out and saved his life.

Here’s the link to the the go-pro footage of the rescuer.

We can all say that there was likely some divine intervention. What makes us turn our head at just the right moment to see something? What makes us wiggle our foot at that perfect second or two? Were angels involved somehow, yelling out in a non-auditory way, “Look to your left!” How do these Godwinks happen? Why did this man, who in all likelihood should now be deceased, get to live? Why did my daughter, who in all likelihood should have lived long past me, get taken so early? Why did things go so incredibly wrong at the hospital?

I understand we live in a sinful world. Because of that, people don’t always do what they say they’ll do, or do what they are supposed to do. They are prideful and arrogant and lazy and sloppy and these traits lead to bad outcomes sometimes. Why didn’t an angel non-audibly yell the right thing into the nurses and doctors ears before it was too late?

I waffle all the time between 1) God had His own reasoning for Morgan to be taken from us - He saw something in the future and called her home and then 2) He did not plan for this to happen to Morgan, sin occurred and her death is the consequence of free will, yet He will not allow her death to be in vain. He will lead we, who loved her, to make good come out of it, and she gets the best deal because she is now in a realm with no more tears and no more pain.

I really struggle with trying to understand this. Which is it? Is it both?

I remember telling the mom of one of the girls on Morgan’s ninth grade club court volleyball team, whose daughter died of a brain tumor that year, that God absolutely did not plan for Lauren to get brain cancer and die. He does not plan death and disease for people; that it was not His will for her to be taken so young. ONLY GOOD THINGS COME FROM GOD. I believe that.

These are the reasons I find myself reading and listening about the divine intelligence of our Creator. He who created everything out of nothing; He who designed everything so perfectly just so there could be life on Earth who had free will to love Him or not - then I accept it. I accept His call as to whether people get to live or die, but I do not understand it.