It is Easter, and I’m reflecting back on a few thoughts I wrote in response to a question a blogger posted on her blog. The writer asked her audience if any of us believed God existed or not. Then she stated that if we believed God exists, then why is there so much evil in the world? Why doesn’t He do something about it?

My response was the following:

I’m a Christian and the one thing that comes to mind when horrible things happen is not because God caused it. It is because we live in a world that was intended to be good and perfect, but something has gone horribly wrong.

I believe the Bible to be true and perfect in totality. In the Bible, it says that God created Adam and Eve to live in a perfect world, with no evil, nor disease, to live in perfect harmony with Him, the creator.

My mind spins when I see suffering such as friends’ babies dying or cancer attacking the kindest people. I get mad and angry and wonder why? Why is this happening? What good can come from this?

When I go back to the fact that God intended his creation to be good and perfect until his created beings (Adam and Eve) decided to do things their way and rebelled, separating themselves from God.

Thousand of years are passing, and the world keeps getting worse. Why? I believe God is giving a chance to everyone to come to know Jesus and be saved. You are probably rolling your eyes and thinking, ugh, another brainwashed Christian.

I don’t blame you. The way the world is and so much evil getting away with evil are just too much. Where is God? I believe He has left us with plenty of proof of who He is. Observe a new mother with their newborn. Or the fact that we live in a suspended globe, in the middle of a hostile universe, where no planet is outfitted to sustain us, except for our beautiful Earth.

I believe God is waiting like a patient father to come to Him. How? By giving us the chance to find out who is Jesus (his son) and why Jesus died on the cross.

Why did Jesus die on the cross? I believe that evil in the world, sin, someone or something has to pay for it. Instead of us (people) “paying” for “it,” he made His son pay off the debt evil leaves us with. Death.

This doctrine of “salvation” by faith in believing in Jesus and his death on the cross, became a little clearer when I became a parent. My second baby (a boy) is deadly allergic to peanuts, and when he was two years old ate a peanut at a birthday party. His little body went into shock, and he could have died. He didn’t. We used the EpiPen rushed him to the hospital and there, the doctors stabilized him, gave him another dose of epinephrine, and he was saved.

While I was watching the doctors poke him, put an IV and an oxygen mask, my son was terrified and in pain. It was right then when I thought if I had the power to put myself in my child’s place and be ME the one getting all the shots to spare him from the pain of being poked several times, I would have taken my son’s place.

If I could trade places with my sweet boy, I would have. But I couldn’t. Similarly, I saw how God’s plan of salvation makes sense. Evil, sin, is like a disease, a terminal disease. God traded places with us and instead took upon himself the consequences of evil and sin. Pain suffering and death on the cross. Now it doesn’t end there. Three days later he rose from the dead and conquered death itself. Death had NO power over Jesus, and He paid the penalty of sin and evil (which is death) once and for all. Jesus suffered the death of a criminal. He was perfectly innocent but died a horrible death.

One day when I die, I will face God the Father. I will be judged by what I did during my life on Earth. I will face my creator and God will ask me, “Who is going to pay for the consequences of all your evil?” Then Jesus will step by my side and say, “I will. I died on the cross for Ursula, and it is finished.”

All of this is in the Bible, over and again. I didn’t understand why Jesus died on the cross until I studied the Bible at a group study called “BSF” which stands for Bible Study Fellowship.

While I was studying the book of “Romans,” my eyes were open to the truth that I’m not “good” by nature. Ok, I’m a law-abiding citizen but I’m not good ALL the time. I can’t be good all the time. I can’t have perfect righteousness until I ‘assume” Jesus work on the cross, and I claim his righteousness and believe He is the Son of God, saving me from eternal death.

Hopefully, I didn’t put you to sleep. So going back to the eternal question: why does God let all the evil in the world take place? I believe He is giving us ALL a chance to come to Jesus and know him and take this gift of His salvation. Once Jesus comes back for the second time, time will be up, and we either belong to Jesus or not. I write this with the utmost respect to all your beliefs and religious background. I’m sharing what I know from studying the Bible and what I’ve come to believe.

You always have the choice to either read the Bible seek God and see how He reveals Himself to you. Or you can laugh at what I wrote. I’m a-ok with that :) I’m no better than anyone, nor “good” nor I know everything and the rest don’t.

I humbly believe God has given me grace, the gift of faith and the desire to read my Bible and find out who Jesus is.

I know I will wake up tomorrow, and I will screw up. I will lose my patience with my kids, yell and be a mess. But then, I‘ll remember what Jesus did for me on the cross, see what an idiot I am, repent and keep trying to show grace to my kids and the people around me. All because of what Jesus did on the cross. Peace to you all and Happy Easter. He has risen!

Ursula

P.S: If you would like to do some further reading go to Bible Gateway, this is a great resource with the Bible translated into many languages.