Can We Work It Out?

The Beatles sung:

Try to see it my way
Do I have to keep on talking ’til I can’t go on?
While you see it your way
Run the risk of knowing that our love may soon be gone
We can work it out…

I love the spirit of co-operative optimism, but can we always work it out?

We enjoy watching the birds feeding in our garden. Birdfeeders are designed for smaller birds. Sparrows, chaffinches, woodpeckers… quickly work out how to feed.

For bigger birds… blackbirds, magpies and jays… it’s not so straightforward; they work it out with brute force and some intelligence.

The poor pigeons just can’t work it out. They walk around underneath hoping that food will miraculously drop. It does, but they don’t know why.

I was talking to Gary. Far a number of years he has been caring for his wife whose significant physical and mental disabilities have been deteriorating. I hadn’t seen Gary for a couple of weeks. I asked how his wife is.

With his family’s help and support Gary’s wife’s now living in a care home. Gary’s working out his new life – home alone, visiting his wife…

Yesterday I returned to ‘What’s God like’? Can we work it out? It was suggested that God is like a twenty sided dice. You can see some numbers, some aspects of His character, clearly; some you glimpse at the very edges; some you can’t see. You roll the dice again; different numbers are visible.

I have faith in my God…

….trusting Him for those sides of the dice that I’ve never seen. I may roll God’s twenty-sided dice tomorrow and discover a number fifty-six.

…when, like Gary, things get beyond me, I need the help of others; radical change may be required.

…when my pigeon brain can’t work it out, but somehow my needs are supplied.