Posts Tagged ‘Isaiah 44:6-8’

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Isaiah 44:6-8; Romans 8:12-25; Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Our gospel lesson for today made me recall what I remember as the very first theological conundrum of my childhood.  I was probably 7 or 8 years old, it was summertime, and my Mom had admonished me to go outside and play.  I suspect on that particular day I had been a bee in my mother’s bonnet.  I walked outside into the front yard barefoot, enjoying the feeling of the warm grass between my toes.  That is until I experienced the sensation of sharp pain all over the bottom of my foot.  I jerked my foot up quickly as I looked down to discover that I had stepped squarely on a thistle.  After I had recovered from the pain, made sure there were no needles stuck in my foot, and surveyed the scene hoping that my parents had not heard the expletive I had shouted (not necessarily in that order), I began to wonder why God made thistles in the first place.  What was the purpose or a thistle?  Why did God create something to inflict pain on a barefooted kid such as myself? Read More