Providence Vs. Petition Vs. The Death Of Jason Todd

Time to get all "Dear Abby" on you guys. I want to say something to an anonymous commenter I received on an earlier post. Two separate topics that had questions were brought up, and the first comment was as follows:

"What is the relationship between providence and petitionary prayer? I mean, if you are unchanging, then how do our prayers change you?"

My anonymously Beloved, your world and your life are a lot like a Choose Your Own Adventure book, but where the finale is set in stone. Feel free to follow your own path through your book or feel free to attempt to follow a path where I might be leaving you bread crumbs. One path is not necessarily easier than the other, but if you follow the one which you think I’m leading… well, that shows Me that you care about Me and I really love it when you show Me that you and I are in a relationship. I’m unchanging, but you aren’t. You keep begging Me for stuff that I don’t think you should get, I might just throw your way just because your constant nagging is kinda cute and I love you. Granted, it might not go too well once you get it, but if My kid wants some bubblegum, it’s hard to say no sometimes. However, none of this affects My big plan. There are millions of routes which people can follow, but no matter what happens to you or the world, they all lead back to Me. And don’t forget, the main character in your Choose Your Own Adventure story isn’t you.

The second question the anonymous person left as a comment is as follows:

"I have a situation I could use a little advice on. In my church there was a lady who has a son that was terminally ill. He had cancer. She and the church prayed for him and he was in fact healed. The doctors don't know what to think. Perhaps you saw it in the press. That is if you read the Durham press. Anyway, the thing is there is another family in my church who had a son with a different cancer that died a few weeks ago. What should I tell the parents of the son who died about you? Why heal one and let another die? It just doesn’t make much sense to me. I know you have a plan, but what about the parents whose son died. What do I say??"

First of all, try to steer clear from saying anything other than “sorry”. You don’t need to say anything profound to them, so don’t try to. They need to be loved, and you can do that by honoring how they like to be cared for. Your love is seen in your actions, not just through words. As to the “why?”, well, that’s just how I roll. There’s sin in the world and it will affect everyone down there. Some will be affected different than others. As to why heal one vs. why not the other… it’ll make more sense to you when you get up here and I can show you the big picture. Butterfly wings can indeed eventually cause hurricanes, and the orchestration of humanity is part Miles Davis and part Devine Intervention. Bad things happen to good people who I love and will continue to happen to good people who I love until your world is done and gone. Blame a fruit, but then move past it and just know that I know what I’m doing up here and that it will all make sense to you soon enough. In the meantime, love Me and love your neighbor, and it’ll all work out. I am madly in love with both of those families, and seeing them struggling is hard. But the problem isn’t sickness, healings, or death. Those are just symptoms to a problem that I’ve already cured, it sometimes just takes a bit of time and faith before the miracle drug works its magic.

This answer too sappy for you? I originally wanted to answer this by comparing your story to how DC decided to let the fans decide if Robin #2 should get the axe or not via pay toll phone voting and then making some sort of joke as to how I do the same thing with angels voting to see who gets cancer or not. As you can see, this joke might not seem be too fitting for your question, so I decided against it. Do not, however, think that this idea was indeed too much. I, being the Son of Man, have a perfect sense of humor and thus could knock you dead simply by telling you a joke that is simply so hilarious that the amount of laughter you exude would cause your heart to explode… not that I would do that (but I could, so watch out). So, if you don’t think this would have been a witty response to the above question, that is simply because Earthly sin has shaken up your since of true comic genius. Other proof of this can be seen in the success of Larry The Cable Guy and Mad TV. Seriously though, wiki-search Job.

Got a question for the Son of Man? Drop Me and line and maybe I’ll answer it via My holy blog… or maybe I’ll answer it some other way, you never really can tell with Me. I’m sneaky.