The Sarcastic, Fed-up, Parent God

Job 38:21, “Surely you know, for you were already born! You have lived so many years!”

If Job was glad God had appeared on the scene, I’m honestly not sure how long it lasted.  And I have serious mixed feelings about the sarcastic, fed-up, parent God who is portrayed here, so clearly.   Perhaps this is because, like so many times before, I know how to play both parts in this dialogue.

Although I am the mother of three pretty fabulous teenagers, I think I’ll keep this particular verse of Scripture in my back pocket… or maybe I’ll even plaster it on their bedroom walls!  Because, let me reiterate, they’re great!  But they’re also teenagers!  And there are moments when I know… for sure… that I have a corner on truth that they’ve just not come to yet. 

And still…  I have no desire to downplay Job’s complete and intense grief, because even if God has a corner on truth in this situation; it’s still a horrible, unimaginably painful state of affairs.

I have nothing comparable to share (thank goodness), but I should admit that I had one of those “the universe hates me” moments, just this morning.  It happened just after I finished snapping more pictures of the many things we are trying to sell at a garage sale.  If you could see my driveway, at present, I would be a little embarrassed.  It is filled with stuff that has been stored for almost four years.  The truth is, if you haven’t used something in that amount of time; you never should have moved it to begin with.  But this house was supposed to be a very temporary fix.  Seven people.  Three Bedrooms.  Less than 1,000 square feet of space.  We were supposed to make good on a three month lease, sell our out-of-state home, buy something new, and move on.    

Upon finally realizing that these many possessions could be useful to someone who has a large enough house for them, I sort of metaphorically threw up my hands and said, “Let’s just sell it all…” 

So, you can tell I was already in a pretty sarcastic mood…

Everything also feels like a time crunch, lately, but I had rallied.  Laptop and phone in hand, I grabbed a folding chair, sat down at a table I’d love to sell to somebody, and prepared to blog… and podcast… and garage sale…

But, wait.  Was that a raindrop on this day where the weather forecast has consistently promised sunny skies?

Of course.

It was at this point that I literally threw my hands up. 

And so here I sit… snugly tucked away in my fifteen passenger van that may or may not start today… watching for any garage sale people who might brave the weather… reading the daily office and typing this post and wondering if God thinks I throw temper tantrums.

I guess if we’re going to dish sarcasm, we have to be able to take it, too.

Please, oh please, let tomorrow’s passage offer something more hopeful than this.

Also…  I swallowed a bug.

 
L.