Justice

Let’s pretend.

It’s late at night. You had to work late and now you’re rushing to the car to get home to catch the tail end of dinner and a few moments with the kids before they head off to bed. In your hurry, you fumble the keys and they fall to the ground. When you bend over to retrieve them, the sound of footsteps echo in the parking lot.

You spin around to find that pesky guy on the third floor who’s had his eye on your job for awhile. He thinks you did something nefarious to get the promotion instead of him. With a wild look in his eye tonight, who knows what he’s got on your mind.

You open your mouth to greet him. Before a sound gets out, his fist slams into your nose. Your mind reels as your body falls back. Your unsteady legs search for balance when his fist sinks into your stomach. Doubling over, you stumble to the ground.

He goes to kick you, but you block his foot with your arm. He tries again. This time, you catch his foot and shove him. He stumbles back and trips over the curb, flips over a fence, and slams his head into a tree before sinking to the ground. Dead.

Now you find yourself in a precarious situation. You did nothing wrong—but there is a good chance you will go to jail on manslaughter charges—especially if there were no witnesses to the incident.

My husband and I got into a discussion about this yesterday. Self-defense that leads to prison. Or another example. The robber who breaks into the house, hurts himself, and then sues the owners because he was injured on their property.

Where’s the justice in that?

We live in an imperfect world. Sometimes the bad guys win. Sometimes we do nothing wrong, and still our lives are ruined.

Jesus did not promise us a life free from injustice. Being a Christian doesn’t grant us an immunity to this fallen world.

God does assure us, though, that vengeance is His. He is the ultimate Judge. Each person will have to answer for what they’ve done.

I may get frustrated with events like the ones described above, but I know that God sees all. What goes unpunished or without justice here on earth, will be rectified in Heaven. Praise the Lord!