There is a lie to expose in our culture. Do you hear it?  The lie to expose is that we blame God for our pain and suffering.  God didn’t create this pain and suffering.  Look at Genesis 1-2.  Look at the relationship between humanity and God that is being established.  I know some of us get distracted by the existence of dinosaurs and the age of the earth.  Stop looking for secret hidden codes, and look at the God that is being described in Genesis 1-2.

It says, “In the beginning God created.”  This isn’t a wicked God, an absentee landlord, but a benevolent God.  God creates.  There didn’t have to be a beginning.  There didn’t have to be sun, moon, and stars, and plants, and animals, and water; and it is all beautiful.  There didn’t have to be snow capped mountains, crystal blue oceans, or a myriad of color.  But, there is and it is because God creates, initiates, and begins life, and God even looks at all God created and thinks, “Dang, that’s good!”

Then, God even takes more time to get involved in the creation of humanity.  It tells us we are set apart from the rest of creation.  It tells us God gets intimately involved and that we are covered with God’s fingerprints all over us. We are made in the image of God, male and female, set apart and given responsibilities, relationship, authority, and intimacy.

I remember the first time I read Genesis 1-2.  I was 17 years old, and I was in awe.  I kept asking myself, “Who is this God?”  Where is this creation?  Where are these people?  Because the world we see today isn’t the world God created, and the reason we don’t see this world today is because in Genesis 3 sin enters into the world.

Sin distorts everything God made to be good, and today because of our sin, we see a creation that is shifted, imbalanced, and skewed.  We see a people who are hurt, broken, and weighted down.  We see our bodies that are layered with sickness, death, and disease, and it isn’t God’s fault.  It is because of our sin.

Sure, you can get upset and think, “Well, if I was God I would have done it different.”  I would have left out the sin part, made people fly, and put a mongoose in the garden that eats snakes, so this would have never happened.”

We see this response in Job and in Job 38 we see God respond to our criticism and say, “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?  Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?  Tell me, if you have understanding.  Where were you when I made clouds, prescribed limits, and said, “Thus far shall you come, and no farther.” Maybe, there is a chance that we don’t see the whole picture?  Maybe there are things in play that we could never understand?

Sure, you can push back and say, “Why are we suffering because Adam and Eve?”  But, you and I would have done the same thing.  The names could have been Michael and Holly, Jon and Erin, Justin and Hannah, Adam and Jenna, Jerry and Jan…yeah, even Jerry and Jan, and we would have seen the same result where humanity believes the lie and doubts the goodness of God that is still echoing into our generation today.

So, we can stop blaming God. Pain and suffering exists, it is because of our sin, and it isn’t because God is angry, sitting up in heaven and says, “Sin against me?  I’ll show you, “Jury duty, jury duty, black mail, black mail, hurricane, disease to teach us a lesson.”  No, God created it all to be good, protected, and safe, and we simply wondered away out on our own like little children who have all gone astray, and placed ourselves in vulnerable positions.