He said,"It's to help young men learn that life isn't fair and there's nothing they can do about it."
And that's essentially what I think this strange old "pre-history" book of the Bible is about. Some scholars see it as God and Satan playing a game of chess with Job as the pawn. This is not my favorite image of God.
This morning my minister, David Miller, quoted Virginia Woolf who said, "I read the book of Job last night and I don't think God comes out well in it." I kind of agree.
But then David Miller went on to say that life is a steady progression of losses and we need to learn to accept them and deal with them. And that God will be there with us as we do. So he, like the Wabash professor, is reminding me that grief and loss may be "unfair" but they are reality.
Unfortunately, I already knew this, but it was helpful to get this reminder. I need to face up to what's happening all around me and get on with it. For example, I just talked with my old friend whose husband died a few days ago. He was 100 years and 3 months old. She was 100 years old last Saturday. While I was trying to find just the right words (?) to comfort her, she told me that her son (whom she adored) died on the very same day.
There's just no making sense of things sometimes. That's what I think the book of Job is teaching me.
David Miller did have a funny illustration about aging. He referenced the aging person's "Furniture Disease." My chest keeps falling into my drawers."
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