Let me tell you what happened to me. I was a much-loved child. My father loved me and my mother loved me and my sister loved me, and that was my world. In return, I loved them all back. I was a child of the World War II, and so I became aware that not everyone loved me. Someone was dropping bombs all over my life in a regular fashion! I was only five years of age when the war broke out. We lived in Liverpool (not a very good idea as the Liverpool docks were a favorite mighty target of the enemy), so I spent many a terrifying night huddled in our air-raid shelter wondering what we had done and why so much hate had been let loose on my happy little head.
When all you have experienced is love at home, it is a puzzle to figure out why there is so much hate afoot outside it. Things were definitely not the way they ought to be! I knew it at that young age, yet no one explained anything to me. My parents were far too busy trying to keep us alive!
So I began to question the character of God. I didn’t know what I was doing, but in my little mind I was trying to figure out why, if God was good, He made so many bad people. And if God was big and could do everything, why didn’t He stop the war? How big was He anyway? No one was reading my mind, so I drew my own five-year-old conclusions and wondered on. It would be ten more years until I finally got some answers to the puzzles of right and wrong, good and evil, love and hate.
One thing, however, was abundantly clear—things were not the way they ought to be. Somewhere deep inside I knew it. I knew with some strange God-given knowledge that there was a good God with a good plan and it had gone terribly wrong. And I was also sure that somewhere a loving God wanted to put everything right. I knew that He was horrified at the sinfulness of the human race. He wanted to reverse it all until right was triumphing over wrong and love prevailed. Love was the answer! If all the people in the world would only love each other like my family does, I thought wistfully, then what a wonderful world it would be!
Years later, when a girl called Janet explained that all my internal hopes were right, I could hardly believe my ears! She affirmed all my secret beliefs in the character of God and told me how I could know Him for myself. I had been sure deep down inside that He existed, and I had no trouble asking for His help. Janet led me to Christ, and I walked into the arms of a God who loved me and gave His life for me. I heard Him say very clearly, You’re right, Jill. Things are not the way they ought to be! First, let me put things right between you and me, and then let’s work together to put things right in the hearts of people all over the world.
