A few years ago, I found myself walking from Cardiff Reef to Seaside, contemplating the age-old question: If God is all good and all powerful, why do horrible things happen? That’s a tough one, right? So much so that theists and atheists have slugged it out (mostly metaphorically) for centuries to find the answer.
While I still have no good answer to such a lofty question, I continue to believe. A simpleton like me cannot believe that the surfer I saw getting barreled this morning, the dolphins I saw frolicking in the surf, the sea birds swooping down to catch sand crabs, or the new north swell creasing the horizon all created themselves from nothing. I totally understand that you might have a different point of view on this matter.
As I walked on the aforementioned morning, I picked up trash and put it into the pockets of my shorts. By the time I arrived home, my pockets were bulging with inorganic junk, and I was feeling pretty lousy about some of my fellow humans. Then I uttered something bordering on blasphemy: “God, how could you love us?”
After emptying my pockets of the day’s discards, I laid everything on my already-cluttered desk. Bottle caps, cigarette butts, monofilament line and a cute little purple dolphin made of rubber were the rewards for my effort. “Don’t polluters realize that fish often mistake such items for food, eat them and die?” I said aloud.
I was about to sweep this junk into the trash bin when I looked down to see a scrap of purple balloon containing words I’ve said, heard, sung and read most of my life. “Jesus Loves You.” This simple Sunday school verse had floated for who knows how far with enough power to overthrow the tangle of thoughts plaguing my brain.
To me, this was a discovery no less significant than the Dead Sea Scrolls. A message from heaven, a celestial valentine short-circuiting my reasoning and connected directly with my heart to remind me that the good, the bad, and the painful were all working together for good.
My theistic friends will, no doubt, see this as a message from a loving Creator. My atheistic friends probably see it as a quaint coincidence. Nothing earth shattering about a balloon falling from the heavens to hit earth with a message that could change the entire world if believed.
I mean, it could have said “Eat at Bob’s” for that matter. It didn’t. Instead, it said something, the exact something I needed to hear at that very moment. To the human who cut the string that set that balloon free, thank you. To the celestial being who sent the message to earth two millennia ago, I remain forever grateful.
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