Light in the Darkness

Ok, I made promises about a "lighter" post and then stopped blogging. sorry. But not really, my day job is kind of a nights and weekends job, too. Its hard to find the time.
Anyway, I listed all of those mega challenging faith issues in my last post. After I had Cole last year, I went through a few rough months emotionally. I felt upset about everything and nothing. I'm sure that postpartum hormones and sleep deprivation were a part of it. But in the middle of it all, I felt so spiritually discouraged. I was mad at God, questioning how it was possible that innocent ones like my sweet newborn baby suffer. The root of it for me all wasn't whether God existed, but whether He was good. (pause for lightning bolt to blow up my computer)
I started really praying and asking Him for answers. I believe God wants honest dialogue from us like that when we are struggling. One of the answers came through a book I found at the time. (try amazon searches for "the problem of evil" in your spare reading time for something fun) :)

One point that really stayed with me was the following. The Bible teaches that Jesus was God's fullest revelation to us on Earth. In other words, if we want to see what God is like (and if He is good), what His character is, who He is, the best thing we can do is study who Jesus was.

"No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known." John 1:18

Jesus wasn't a religious supremacist. His ministry went straight to the people of His time that suffered the most. The sick - dying - orphans - widows - poor - the outcast - the women and children (second rate citizens of that society). The ones who needed Him the most.

This prophetic passage from Isaiah was quoted by Jesus in the New Testament as He referred to Himself,

"This spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion- to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor."
Isaiah 61:1-4