Short beds and narrow blankets

"For the bed is too short to stretch oneself on,
and the covering too narrow to wrap oneself in."
(Isaiah 28:20)

The trouble with short beds and narrow blankets is that they cannot provide any comfort. And, for that matter, neither can inadequate views of God's sovereignty and fatherly care really help us when we are battered, grieving, anxious and troubled.

I read The Shack at a particularly low point last October, shortly after our baby died in the eighteenth week of the pregnancy. The mental and emotional cure for our sorrows that the book offers falls short of that offered by the God of all comfort who is both Almighty God and our faithful Father. Some aspects of the book, those surrounding the free will defense approach to sovereignty and suffering, were once very attractive to me. But that was a long time ago.

My friend David Strain has written a review of Roger Olson's Finding God in The Shack over at Ref 21.