Crack! Creak! CRUNNNNNNCH! The Yard Boy and I were sitting on our patio as we heard the neighbor’s tree fall. It had been growing there for a long time, and had already lost quite a few limbs. This time, the biggest part of it split off and fell across the neighbor’s driveway. There was no wind or rain. The tree had simply decided (much like we had, at this point) that this calm, pleasant evening would be a good time to give up trying to stay upright anymore.

Luckily, no vehicles were harmed in this scenario. As the Yard Boy went over to investigate, Mike told him that he had been worried about that tree coming down for quite some time. It was quickly dispatched with a chain saw.

A few days later, during a violent windstorm, a friend’s little apple tree was mercilessly snapped off in the middle of the night. This tree wasn’t more than four years old, and was already loaded with apples that the children had been eyeing in anticipation.

Even our own sixteen-year-old fruit trees were recently damaged by winds.

For insurance purposes, some things aren’t covered because they are called “acts of God.” Why do we only call the bad stuff that happens “acts of God?” Every morning, we awaken to the sunrise as an “act of God.” The rain that falls gently to water the earth is an “act of God.” But only when we get more water than necessary do we use this verbiage, as if God was waiting around idly until he found some mischief to do.

Similarly, many people blame God when tragedy strikes. We wonder why he let our loved one die, or why children get cancer.

A song popular in the seventies blamed a church building for standing and watching as the writer’s loved one left town. Really? Winchester Cathedral has nothing to do with your love life, friend.

Neither do the people inside Winchester Cathedral on any given Sunday, for that matter. The writer was blaming a church for his problems.

Nobody really does that, do they? Well; yes, they do.

“Our kids turned away from God because the church didn’t have enough programs for the youth.”

“My marriage fell apart because the church didn’t make my spouse become a better person.”

“I started drinking because the people in the bar were more fun than the people at church.”

So all the bad things that could happen can be blamed on the church. If that doesn’t work within some narrow minds, they branch out and blame God. Isn’t it odd that these disgruntled people don’t ever ascribe the myriad good things to divine providence?

Even the simpler acts of God would be devastating if they ceased. Consider only the sunshine and rain (Matthew 5:45).

Yet God has acted for good in the tiniest detail. He even holds together the atoms that comprise the universe (Hebrews 1:3) What would happen if the atomic bonds were loosed?

Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done,
and thy thoughts which are to us-ward:
they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee:
if I would declare and speak of them,
they are more than can be numbered” (Psalm 40:5, KJV).

We may not be able to count the wonderful acts of God, but we do know that the ultimate act of sending his own Son into this world surely cancels out any of those acts that we so ungratefully grumble about.

Christine (Tina) Berglund