God is the guarantor of human fulfilment. Part 3

God is the guarantor of human fulfilment

Part 3: But life is not perfect. How do we – and our God – cope with evil and suffering?

But what about the child who dies in infancy, or those whose life is one of unremitting poverty, or their life’s pleasures are snatched away from them by unjust oppressors and abusers. It is going to sound far too cerebral to counter this degree of anguish with our thoughts about God’s perfection, but I think, once the wave of sorrow and loss has been encountered, that it is valid to do this – and, in fact, there is either this compensation or there is nothing but the loss.

So, our concept of God is of the perfect being. This includes ideas of his terrible anguish in the face of suffering, of his yearning for wholeness, of his sorrow for loss. What else could a perfect God do but grieve for those who suffer? In this respect, our sorrow, pain and loss are included in the list of “good things” because they are the right, appropriate response. Of course, the loss itself is a terrible thing, and every possible attempt must be made to reduce and mitigate the effects of suffering. However, in our understanding of the world – one in which we are thinking about God as a conception within the human mind, rather than as a personal agent – let alone an omnipotent agent with the ability to intervene in the material universe – then suffering is unavoidable. However, we can use our understanding of God to incorporate all our anguish and loss – which are right and good responses – into that understanding. Therefore, in just the same way that God acts as a mirror and generator to reflect back to us and enhance all the goodness of our love in times of well-being, so God does the same with respect to all the good that is contained within our experiences of loss and sorrow. God is still acting as the receptacle for all that is good and true and lovely. My sense of loss becomes a precious reality within our shared understanding of the fullness of God’s goodness, who shares the loss and treasures the loss.