Tonight I had dinner with my cohort, a group of other students pursuing a Masters in Intercultural Studies, which is led by Sherwood and Judith Lingenfelter. As always it was an excellent meal followed by an intriguing conversation.

This week we picked up a conversation that was left unfinished from last week. The question of the consistency of the character of God throughout the Bible was raised. This is not the sort of question that is easily answered when we begin to think about that pivotal story of the exodus. What do we do as those who believe in a just and a good God while reading about all of the firstborns in Egypt being killed? What about their mothers? These are hard questions. There are no easy answers.

I won't try to give any answers here, but to say that I appreciated having the space to wrestle with those questions. To know that we could ask them knowing that in our group it is a safe space. To know that in the end we have all asked some of these questions and have searched the scriptures and know that though the answers are not easy and that many passages are hard to stomach, but that in the big picture God is good. That God does not always fit into our boxes, that He is in fact too big to understand. That at some point we have to accept that and accept Him. As Sherwood's father said at the end of the night, "We need to let God be God."

Paul seems to put a lot of his hope in the resurrection, that in that day all will be made clear and the judgment will be just. I suppose that is where faith comes into play.