The Father Knows Best

~~~ St. Therese of the Child Jesus ~~~

 

~~~ Job 1: 6-22 ~~~ Psalm 17 ~~~ Luke 9: 46-50 ~~~

 

If ever you are feeling melancholy just go to the book of Job and begin reading;

you will quickly feel better.

From the very beginning of this book we find Job being plunged

into a very sober time for him. Satan is mocking Job's faithfulness to God.

 

"Is it for nothing that Job is God-fearing?
Have you not surrounded him and his family
and all that he has with your protection?
You have blessed the work of his hands,
and his livestock are spread over the land.

 

God is there to protect him, but everything else around him

is being consumed by the evil one.

All that Job had was systematically destroyed by Satan...

Job not only lost his livestock but also his family.

 

"Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine
in the house of their eldest brother,
when suddenly a great wind came across the desert
and smote the four corners of the house.
It fell upon the young people and they are dead..."

 

Job immediately prostrates himself before God an surrenders his life...

 

"...The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away;
blessed be the name of the LORD!"

I am not sure I would have the same conviction as Job shows.

Job certainly would have been justified in being angry with God for allowing these terrific events to take place; for Job was a God fearing man.

 

The psalmist today echoes Job's prayer of surrender...

 

"...Though you test my heart, searching it in the night,
though you try me with fire, you shall find no malice in me."

 

Job did not turn away from God when faced with tremendous trials and heartache.

 

The gospel is one we have recently heard, but today as we honor 'the little flower' it is particularly appropriate. Jesus speaks about who will enter into heaven...

 

"Whoever receives this child in my name receives me,
and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.
For the one who is least among all of you
is the one who is the greatest."

 

"Jesus does not look so much at the greatness of our actions,

or even at their difficulty, as at the love with which we do them."

St. Therese of Lisieux

 

All things will pass except for the love of God.

I pray for childlife trust in God.

The Father Knows Best!

 

St. Therese, pray for us.