Have you ever been at a sports event that was crucial, with either side about to win the championship? Perhaps some for either team are begging God for their side to win! In a far more serious analogy, the same happens in the midst of war. The military on either side are someone’s sons or daughters, spouses, friends. Of course, believers on both sides are begging God for victory and the end to the battle.
What is God to do? Should God take sides? Does God take sides? Does it matter at all to God? “Even the hairs of our head are counted” (Matt 10:30), so yes, it must matter tremendously to God what happens in our lives.
Could the scenario be that God took a tremendous risk in giving humans free will and that God allows the consequences of these choices to unfold, even as parents must do in the lives of adult children?
Yet we trust that God does not abandon us, no matter where the path of our decisions take us, or takes an entire country or our world. God remains with us to bring good from evil, to write straight with crooked lines, to sustain our hope with the vision of God’s Reign.
We just experienced a contentious election. Good people of faith on both sides prayed to God. If your preferred candidate won, does that mean God was on your side? If he lost, does that mean God was not on your side? Or did God see each candidate as God’s adult son and each voter as God’s adult child, and respected our freedom of choice? Will God continue to be at work among us as we move into the future of our country and our world? Unequivocally, YES!
