A heedless and absent-minded man can believe that things
just take their normal course, and all events occur by accident and
coincidence. It can seem to such an inconsiderate man that God, if He even
exists, is somewhere high in the heaven and has no interest in this world,
which is too small and insignificant in His eye. People who think so are called
deists. Deistic teaching about God has become especially widespread in the West
during the last centuries, when people started to lose live contact with God in
the Church, Sacraments and prayer. Usually, these people are superstitious at
the same time, attaching great importance to stars’ influence on human life,
watching tokens and omens, e.g. cats crossing their way, scattering salt on the
table, shaking hands across threshold, not sleeping with their feet turned
toward doors and so on. Some people have immense numbers of superstitions, and
it just complicates their lives wastefully.
It is best not to pay attention to these stupid superstitions
at all, because everyone’s life in particular, and
universe as a whole are governed by God.
We pray: "Our Father which art in
heaven," but at the same time we know that God is everywhere, because He
is a genuine Spirit, who is "living everywhere." That is why David
the Psalmist exclaimed, "Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up
into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the
sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right
hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness
shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness
hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the
light are both alike to thee" (Psalm 139).
Some agree that the world in general is not ruled
by accidents, but by God. However, they think that God does not care about each
and every one, because man is unworthy and negligible, and God will not look
after this uncountable multitude of creatures. But this reasoning is incorrect
and sinful. To express it in human notions, if God decided that microbes were
worthy of existence and gave specific organization and form to all of them, why
then these creatures would not be worthy of His care further on? God cared to
give them life; He also cares about the continuation of their lives. Some say
that there are too many living beings. But how dare we assign our limitations
onto God, Who is infinite in perfection? Had He created billions of worlds with
myriads of humans, beasts, insects and germs, it would not have worn Him out to
take care about each particular life. One might say that these creatures are
too small and insignificant, but we create our concept of sizes by comparison
to ourselves. What is huge in our sight is negligible before the majesty of
God, and what seems little to us is great for His goodness and love. The Lord
provides for everything, gives life to all, and leads to the victory of truth
and good.
The Savior said that even a sparrow shall not fall
on the ground without the will of our Father (Matthew 10:29); all the more, nothing in our lives can happen without
His will. Things that are good and kind are given from the Lord, Who is the
eternal source of goodness. Things that are evil are not sent from God
directly, because there is no even a shade of evil in God. For our benefit and
salvation, though, the Lord permits evil to harm and hurt us. In this case, various
troubles have the effect of bitter, unpleasant, but saving medicines. Almost
all pills and medical operations are unpleasant for us, but we have to take
them because we know they are necessary and
health-giving.
Everyone should clearly know that only God is the
source of happiness, peace and bliss. God created consolations and joys of the
visible world for the sake of our corporeal nature. Man with intelligent soul,
using everything moderately, should not forget God. The soul cannot be
satisfied with anything worldly and tangible. In most cases we follow our
bodily lusts insatiably, and absolutely forget about soul and its spiritual
needs. Because God does not want us to step back from our vocation of children
of God toward the degree of unintelligent beasts, He sends us sorrows. Getting
beaten on things we were seeking irresponsibly, we slowly start to understand
the futility of our activities and turn to God.
We should firmly know that God is infinitely good
and wishes our happiness and salvation only; this is why we should also be
thankful in accepting grieves from Him. Children do not stop loving parents
when parents punish them unjustly, because they know that parents want better
for them. The Scripture says that the Lord punishes him whom He loves.
If the Lord provides for us all the time, meaning
that He always cares about our life and salvation, then we also have to learn
how to follow His Providence in our lives. Sometimes we notice that things
happen not as we want them to. We get angry and indignant, murmur about
fortune, but after years pass we understand that what happened was to the
better, and it would be worse for us otherwise. We Christians should thank God
for our sorrows, rather than triumph over our success, because sorrows clean
off our passions, while worldly success leads to forgetting God and the purpose
of our life on the earth.
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