As a teacher and lover of theology, I am compelled to share some personal thoughts on Providence. While I realize Christians have varying perspectives on this subject, given the recent events we witnessed, I believe the following views will be helpful to some of us (myself included).
Life is a game of inches.
This saying has been applied to many sporting pursuits—baseball, football, and even horseshoes. Games aside, we recently had the sobering opportunity to see how much every inch counts. While speaking at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, former president Donald Trump was grazed by a bullet within an inch or so of killing him. Had he not ever-so-slightly turned his head to take another glance at the chart displayed on the jumbotron, he would surely have died on July 13, 2024.
However, Trump was not the only one affected. Two attendees were shot during the assassin's spree and survived, but one bullet fatally hit Corey Comperatore. He died at the scene as he heroically shielded his wife and daughter from the gunfire.
Comperatore and Trump met two different ends from the same shooter: one walked away alive, returning to the love and joy of his family, and the other was killed, leaving his loved ones bereft and heartbroken.
These tragic events raise critical questions for many of us. Understandably, one of the most common is this: Why did one man survive a shooting and another die? There are only two possible answers: (1) God was in control and permitted the loss of Comperatore's life while Trump's was spared, or (2) God was not in control, and blind chance paved the way for Trump to live and Comperatore to lay down his life for his family.
If we are to acknowledge the Almighty's sovereignty, we have the answer: God was in control. Yet, within the divine covering of His supreme plan, humans have been given the gift of choosing our actions. While the interplay of these two truths — God's control and man's choices — stretches our finite comprehension, we can confidently say that God works out His plan in and through our circumstances (cf. Ps. 103:19).
As one example of this reality, Psalm 139:16 reveals God's Providence to us in beautiful language that both comforts the grieving and enlightens the living:
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them (ESV).
All our days are "written" and "formed" by God, as denoted by the psalmist David's words. Our Creator's direction was in place before He formed the world. Though we may be tempted to resist the Lord's sovereignty over our lives, His power clarifies His work and comforts us—as a good Father.
For some of us, a long life gives our heavenly Father great glory. For others, a shorter time on this earth glorifies Him. Either way, the persevering and patient trust of believers in Jesus Christ honors our Creator, showing that He is worthy of our devotion and praise.
Abraham Lincoln proclaimed profound assurance that God was overseeing mankind's undertakings, even as he served as president, leading America through its darkest days, the Civil War.
If it were not for my firm belief in an overruling Providence, it would be difficult for me, in the midst of such complications of affairs, to keep my reason on its seat. But I am confident that the Almighty has His plans, and will work them out; and, whether we see it or not, they will be the best for us.
The Lord's sovereignty reassured and comforted Lincoln, as it should us. Because our Creator is supreme, He is at work, carrying out His plan for "the good of those who love Him" (Romans 8:28 NIV). He even uses the evil acts of people to accomplish His perfect will (Acts 4:28). The cross of Christ, which atoned for all our sins, shows us this truth in striking detail. Such a sacrifice of love reminds us that we are not adrift in the cosmos and not victims of uncontained evil and randomized chance. We are our heavenly Father's beloved (Romans 8:16).
We conclude that God's supreme hand guides all our moments—the happy and the hard times—to their ultimate and rightful end. While, at times, we can only see the temporal fragments of life as marred with trials and suffering, the Lord's greater plan has fitted our often-broken circumstances into a mosaic of eternal hope and love. Like Lincoln, we can find assurance in knowing the Almighty is working out His plan through our lives.
Life is indeed a game of inches, and God has measured them all perfectly within His Providence.